Lawyer: Girl saw details online of sex assault before hanging self

photo This undated photo provided by her family via attorney Robert Allard shows Audrie Pott. A Northern California sheriff's office has arrested three 16-year-old boys on accusations that they sexually battered the 15-year-old girl who hanged herself eight days after the attack last fall.

SARATOGA, Calif. - A 15-year-old California girl who was sexually abused while passed-out drunk at a party hanged herself after discovering an intimate photo of her circulating online, a lawyer for her family said Friday.

Sheriff's officials arrested three 16-year-old boys Thursday on suspicion of sexual battery against Audrie Pott, who committed suicide in September, eight days after the party.

The case shocked many in this prosperous Silicon Valley suburb of 30,000. And together with two other episodes - a suicide in Canada and a rape case in Steubenville, Ohio - it underscored the dangers of technology in the hands of young people and the use of the Internet to torment others.

"The problem with digital technologies is they can expand the harm that people suffer greatly," said Nancy Willard, an Oregon-based cyberbullying expert and creator of a prevention program for schools.

Santa Clara County sheriff's officials would not give any details on the circumstances around Audrie's suicide.

But family attorney Robert Allard said Audrie had been drinking at a sleepover at a friend's house, passed out and "woke up to the worst nightmare imaginable." She knew she had been assaulted, he said.

But in the days that followed, she pieced together more precisely what happened from emails, text messages and an explicit photo that was passed around online, and she realized she had been abused by three of her friends, the lawyer said.

"We are talking about a systematic distributing of a photo involving an intimate body part of hers," Allard said.

On Facebook, Audrie said the whole school knew what happened, and she complained that her life was ruined - "worst day ever," Allard said.

Her parents did not learn about the assault until after her death, when Audrie's friends approached them, Allard said.

In Canada, meanwhile, police said Friday they have received new information and are reopening their investigation in the case of 17-year-old suicide victim Rehtaeh Parsons.

Parsons was photographed while being sexually assaulted in 2011 and was then bullied after the photo was shared on the Web, authorities said. Police initially concluded there were no grounds to charge anyone.

In Steubenville, Ohio, two high school football players were convicted last month of raping a drunken 16-year-old girl in a crime that was recorded on cellphones by students and gossiped about online.

The victim herself realized she had been attacked after seeing text messages, a photo of herself naked and a video that mocked her.

The suspects in the Saratoga case were booked into juvenile hall. Their names were not released.

The news surprised residents of the town.

"People in this town are involved, parents advocate for their kids to get the best education, the best teachers, the best sports," said Jamie Perez, who was walking her baby and her dog on Friday past a coffee shop.

Perez graduated from the local school system, which has one of the top high schools in the state.

Family videos of Audrie show a bright, cheerful girl standing on a cantering horse, boogie boarding at the beach, playing her violin and singing.

Interviewed for her high school newspaper Saratoga Falcon when she started as a freshman in 2011, Audrie was optimistic and said she was looking forward to playing on the soccer team.

"I'm really excited to meet new people; there are a lot more people in high school than in middle school," she said. "However, I'm not looking forward to all the extra homework. Another thing I'm really excited about is that in high school, the dances seem so much more fun."

Allard said Thursday's arrests "reopened a wound" for the girl's family members, and they have gone into seclusion. But they want to see the boys prosecuted as adults and tougher consequences for distributing such photos.

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