5 days of 'torture' leave Manitoba teen struggling to heal after relentless cyberbullying

A Manitoba teen victim and her mother have come forward to share their story of relentless cyberbullying in hopes it doesn't happen to anyone else.

"No one should ever go through what I did," the girl, who can't be identified, said.

In late December of 2013, 14-year-old "Jane" got a Facebook message from a man she didn't know.

She responded and a conversation began. What seemed like a friendly exchange quickly turned into what would become a five-day attack.

That one photo you send to a guy, if they take a screenshot of it, it's there in their phone, you can never get it back- Jane

An 18-year-old man, who can only be referred to as Z.M., befriended the girl, flattered her and gained her trust.

He then asked for a nude photo, and Jane complied, sending him a photo of her exposed breasts.

He then began demanding more photos and sexually explicit videos, threatening to release the photo if she did not comply.

Z.M. then added two of his friends to the conversation, twin brothers G.G. and N.G, who also began making demands of the teen.

They are all from the same western Manitoba community.

"He [Z.M.] just kept going on like we were like this family and whatnot and they were my brothers or something. And I was his sweet little girlfriend," Jane told CBC News.

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Over the course of five days, the trio bombarded the girl with text messages.

They told her she was not allowed to eat or sleep unless they gave her permission to be away from her iPod, which she used to access Facebook. They demanded photos and asked her to perform sexual acts on camera for them.

The men threatened to tell her parents, insisting she would be the one to get in trouble if anyone found out.

Jane's parents began to notice a change in her behaviour.

"She wasn't sleeping. She wasn't really eating. She wasn't bathing," said the girl's mother.

'You can't talk to her like that' 

That's when Jane's father demanded to see her iPod.

"We happened to see some messages pop up, and my husband didn't like the way that this one individual was talking to my daughter and he said 'this is her dad, you can't talk to her like that' and that's when he [Z.M.] said 'you should see what your daughter's been doing,'" Jane's mom recalled.

The parents immediately took Jane to the police station. The Integrated Child Exploitation (ICE) unit became involved, confiscating Jane's iPod. 

The investigation revealed thousands of messages between the teen and her attackers.It also showed photos and videos that were exchanged after graphic and detailed instructions from the boys.

The adult male was charged with extortion, inviting a sexual act, possession of child pornography, distribution of child pornography, making child pornography and exposure to a person under 18.

The adult was sentenced to two years less a day in August of 2015.

His co-accused, two brothers who were 17 at the time of the attacks, were also charged and sentenced to 16 months in custody in December of 2014. That sentence was later appealed and reduced to 12 months.

They will be getting out of jail within weeks.

"The accused promised the victim they would not distribute the images. They broke this promise, distributing explicit images, via social media, to various people within their common community, including people with whom the victim went to school. The images included her face, as well as her breasts and vagina," the judge wrote in his decision.

Jane's mother said that since the men were sentenced, things have improved at home but the emotional damage done to her daughter continues. Her mother worries what will happen when the two brothers are released from jail.

"It got really bad at school before they were sentenced and immediately afterward. We had to pull her out of school," said Jane's mother, adding her daughter has been pointed at and teased by her classmates.

"The one name that sticks out is being called the 'nude snapper,'" Jane's mother said.

Jane is worried those images might still be out there.

'Don't date her'

"Some of the guys just go and turn and just be like, 'Oh that's that girl, don't date her or you might end up in jail too,'" said Jane.

"They said 'Maybe she should never have done that, or maybe she shouldn't have put her face in [the photo].'"

Jane's mother said many people in her community don't fully understand what happened, and there are a lot of rumours flying around.

Because the attack happened online, she feels it's not taken seriously. At the court proceedings, she was devastated to hear that the man's parents did not think their son had done anything wrong.

"They have to interview the parents to see what type of home life these boys have had, and hearing that  [Z.M.'s] parents had been telling their son that he didn't do anything wrong because 'You didn't actually physically touch her,'" Jane's mother said.

Jane's mother also has a warning for parents who allow their children to be on social media.

"Don't let your kids have these things. They are not emotionally or mentally ready for having the world at their fingertips," she said.

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"With the way that you can video chat, Facetime, Snapchat, Instagram, all these things. People are literally right there.

"All these horrible people can have [access] to your children and they don't even know it. Even somebody like me as an adult, I can be duped. They can put up fake profiles, they can do all sorts of things, you wouldn't know." she said.

Warning for teens

Jane, who is now 16, also has a warning for other teens.

"That one photo you send to a guy, if they take a screenshot of it, it's there in their phone, you can never get it back," she said.

Jane is back at school with some of the same students who made fun of her, but she has good friends and the help of therapy to get her through.

Jane also said hearing stories about teens taking their own lives upsets her.

"People are going through it this very hour, this very minute," she said, adding help is available and that speaking out can change the story.

"It's really nerve wracking to go and tell someone, but honestly, when you tell them it feels like something has just lifted off of you, and that somebody finally knows."