Video'd gang rape of 16 year old goes viral on the internet via teens

The horrific gang rape of a 16-year-old girl is roiling Canada. It's suspected that she was drugged at a rave on Saturday and then assaulted in a nearby field by a group of males. Truly adding insult to injury: The attack in Pitt Meadows, B.C., was photographed and videotaped -- and the evidence was then published on Facebook by one of her alleged attackers. The photos and video "have been viewed, shared, saved and reposted numerous times," an official told the Vancouver Sun. The images are spreading like wildfire, and it's impossible to contain.

This is the typical predicament law enforcement faces when it comes to online child pornography: Once it's out there, it's usually out there for good. The digital trail is just too difficult to trace. We've seen a similar thing with teen "sexting." A boyfriend gets angry when his girlfriend breaks up with him, so he texts a naked photo of her to all his buddies, they send it to all their buddies, and so on and so forth. In the end, it's hard to know just how many people have seen the image and where it's ended up.

This reminds me of reports earlier this year about a woman who goes by the pseudonym Amy: Her uncle sexually abused her as a little girl and circulated the photographic evidence in child porn circles. Now she's calling for damages from anyone caught with images of her abuse; so far, her photos have shown up in more than 800 child porn prosecutions. In a letter to the court, she wrote: "It is hard to describe what it feels like to know that at any moment, anywhere, someone is looking at pictures of me as a little girl being abused by my uncle and is getting some kind of sick enjoyment from it. It's like I am being abused over and over and over again."

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The same could also be said about the images of the alleged gang rape. The major difference here is that the material is being distributed via a mainstream website. For the most part, these are not pedophilic child pornography collectors; many of the distributors are teenagers themselves. This of course has many adults asking that age-old question: What's wrong with kids these days? I suspect there are a couple explanations that do not require us to label "kids these days" as amoral animals. No. 1 on my list is, of course, the culture of victim blaming. According to one report, "only hours after disturbing pictures were posted on Facebook, teens were already suggesting the victim was a willing participant and asked for it." This "othering" response allows people to mentally guard themselves against the possibility of ever being a victim themselves; it's what's known as the "just-world phenomenon" (and, ironically, it creates a less just world).

Of course, the other defining element here is the Internet. The Web allows us to share videos -- whether it's a crazy cat trick or footage of someone's death -- with very few keystrokes, and often very little thought. These kids have grown up in the age of "Two Girls One Cup," a coprophilic video that rose to viral status thanks to the utter horror that it inspired in viewers. There are legion examples of even journalistic videos and photographs that have whipped around the Web specifically because they are horrifying -- think of the Neda Agha-Soltan video, for example. These sorts of images are the norm. We have access to them, they exist, and so we view them -- duh. Carry this view a little further and it isn't hard to understand how even a nonsociopathic teenager might opt to view a photo of a girl's rape, or even send it along to a friend. This is so often how we share things, good and bad; we hit "forward" or "re-tweet" or "like," etc. Technology offers us a sense of privacy, and detachment, even as we're sharing these things with the entire Web. The online mentality is one of entitlement and total freedom, no one has ownership over anything (just ask record label execs). I would venture to say that it hasn't even occurred to many of the kids -- the ones who are not, you know, patently evil -- that they are violating this girl themselves.

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Theres a movie coming out this month called The Virginity Hit - its about four teens and camera and one of them losing his virginity. The article above asks "whats wrong with these kids" - whats wrong
with them is movies like this.

I read this and I swear I went into AFib.

It is sooooo important that peers support victims of rape and molestation.

How could they do something like this? I hope they round them up, lock them up and never let them see the light of day again.

Animals..all of them.

And shame on them passing that horrible video around.

God bless that young girl. She will need all of our prayers.

I am sick.

I hope none of the footage can now be found online. How sick is that to put those images on Facebook? What the hell is Wrong with our youth today?

I w/be 60 soon and let me tell you..I am shocked almost everyday at the youth now. The internet, all the channels on cable and cell phones where they can text has ruined our kids. All of the above can be used for higher good, but many teens or even younger are using all this technology to wreak havoc.

Jeanne, I am right there with you!! :jaw dropping:

Thanks for posting this, artgal. I live in Canada & have been hearing about this on our news & it has sickened & shocked me!

I agree with Wrap, that our young people are being ruined by all the technology that is available. It almost makes me feel like living in a log cabin in some remote area - just to get away from "civilized" society that is turning young people into animals!!

I pray that this young girl recovers in time (physically & emotionally), and that the "animals" that attacked her will turn themselves in. Then, let her father deal with them!

Dad of gang-raped girl makes appeal
Last Updated: Friday, September 17, 2010 | 7:39 PM PT
CBC News
The father of a 16-year-old girl who was gang-raped at a rave in Pitt Meadows, B.C., is pleading for people to stop circulating photos of the attack.

Two young males face charges after the girl was drugged then raped by seven males at a party Sept. 10 at rural property in the community, about 25 kilometres east of Vancouver.

His daughter is having difficulty struggling with what happened to her, said the man, whose identity can't be revealed.

"It's a day-to-day thing," he said. "She relives things every day. More things pop up that she finds out about and it slows down the healing process."

He said he was very angry when he first heard of the sex assault.

"Sick [and] rage, huge rage," he said. "Sometimes it's funny how you react to things and your first instinct is not a pleasant instinct."

Appeal for empathy
He said he is making a public appeal for empathy so his daughter can get the privacy she needs to move on.

The thoughts of photos of the attack on the internet are making things worse for her, he said.

"I'm just trying to hammer home to people, if this ever happened to your daughter, your granddaughter, it's something you feel powerless to control. I'm just hoping people do the right thing."

Police visited Pitt Meadows high schools Friday, asking students to stop the circulation of the photos.

"If any citizen comes across the photos, we're wanting them to stop the spreading of them, delete them and, as well, contact us," said RCMP Insp. Derren Lench.

Police are recommending a charge of sexual assault against an 18-year-old man who was arrested and released Friday on the condition that he have no contact with the victim.

A 16-year-old boy could face child pornography charges over taking and distributing the pictures.

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Instead of pleading with these animals they should hold those found posting pictures on the internet guilty of aiding and abeting a rapist.

That would wipe the smiles off their faces. If they can't jail them then a nice hearty fine should get their attention...and the money turned over to the victim for the therapy she will probably need the rest of her life.

I won't be back to this topic. I am going to be an ostridge and put my head in the sand. Too disturbing.

I am sick.

In one of the most horrifying stories I've read in a while, a Canadian girl was gang-raped at a rave last weekend by seven men. One of the attackers decided to photograph and videotape the event, and then made an even worse call: he uploaded the photos to Facebook, where they quickly went viral. Now the images are impossible to contain, despite the best attempts of the Canadian police, and the graphic photos of a drugged 16-year-old girl being attacked in a field near a party will probably never be fully removed from the internet. This, needless to say, is not helping the girl recover. The whole incident raises significant questions about whether the internet creates a culture of desensitivity and its own brand of violence.

The one hopeful part of the story has been the reaction from Canadian law enforcement officials, who have made it clear that the attack was a rape, and that anyone who is caught possessing or distributing the photos is threatened by child pornography laws.

"What happened after this incident and continues to happen is beyond disgusting, said Sgt. Jennifer Hyland, who is leading the investigation. "These photos are child pornography. They have been viewed, shared, saved and re-posted numerous times. This is an offense and is so socially corrupt it is sickening. The posting and viewing of the photos is continuing to victimize this young girl and her family and needs to stop."

Other teens and partygoers, however, are somehow less willing to admit the severity of the crime. One teen said, "We are thinking it's being over-exaggerated. I don't think she was as messed up as she's making it out to be. I don't think she was raped." The comments on Facebook were similarly disgusting and victim-blaming; they included sentiments like "straight up WHORE," a "complete slut," and "Cmon who's not down for a gang bang."

Tracy Clark-Flory has a great piece on Broadsheet, where she investigates the typical "kids these days" reaction to this piece, which she says is not really accurate. Instead, she blames the culture of victim-blaming and the internet itself in creating a society where this kind of viral violence becomes the norm. Clark-Flory writes,

"Technology offers us a sense of privacy, and detachment, even as we're sharing these things with the entire Web. The online mentality is one of entitlement and total freedom, no one has ownership over anything (just ask record label execs). I would venture to say that it hasn't even occurred to many of the kids -- the ones who are not, you know, patently evil -- that they are violating this girl themselves."

She cites other violent videos, like the drowning of a mother on an Italian beach or the death of Neda Agha-Soltan during Iranian protests in 2009 as viral phenomena that were popular because they were horrifying. I would take this a step further, though - although they were brutal, those videos lacked the participatory element that makes the virality of the gang-rape video so disturbing. People who download these photos do, in a sense, participate in the forceful violation of a 16-year-old girl, and in so doing create a new kind of violence. What we should do to combat that violence is another question.

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January 6, 2011

MAPLE RIDGE, British Columbia (AP) — Canada's federal police force has charged two teenage boys after a girl was gang raped at a party and photos of the incident were put on Facebook.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police Sgt. Peter Thiessen said Thursday that 18-year-old Colton Ashton McMorris has been charged with sexual assault and 19-year-old Dennis John Allen Warrington has been charged with production and distribution of child pornography in the Sept. 10, 2010, incident. The girl was 16 at the time.

The photos were widely circulated on the Internet after they were posted on the popular social networking site. A 16-year-old boy was charged last fall with production and distribution of child pornography in connection with the attack.

Thiessen read a statement Thursday from the victim who said she had to leave her school because of bullying following the ordeal.

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Feb 21, 2012

Crown prosecutors have dropped charges against the only man accused of sexual assault at a notorious Pitt Meadows, B.C., rave, the man’s lawyer says.

Colton McMorris, 19, was accused of assaulting a girl, 16, at a party in September 2010, while a young offender was charged with posting pictures of the incident — described at the time as a gang rape — on the internet.

Another man, Dennis John Allen Warrington, 19, was charged with distributing child pornography.

Lawyer Tony Serka said the Crown admitted in Port Coquitlam provincial court Tuesday that it did not have a strong enough case against McMorris to proceed with a trial.

"There wasn't any substantial likelihood of conviction from the start of this case," Serka said outside the courtroom.

“There wasn't a gang rape, in fact. And [McMorris's] family is happy, not because my client is getting off something that he did, but that he was innocent and they believed him and everybody who knew him believed his innocence right from the start.”

Police said during their initial investigation that as many as half a dozen men may have been involved in the assault and that the victim had been drugged.
Conflicting accounts

McMorris did nothing wrong and accompanied the complainant and her friends to McDonald's after the party, Serka said.

Serka said the charges have ruined his client's reputation: "That can never be erased. That can never be taken away."

After McMorris and Warrington were charged in January, the alleged victim released a statement through police, calling the September incident and the aftermath a “terrible ordeal.”

Her family released a statement at the same time.

"We are pleased to hear of Crown approving charges against these men," the statement read. "There has never been any doubt in our minds that our daughter was sexually assaulted.”

In January, the young offender who posted the pictures on Facebook was sentenced to one year's probation.

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