HALIFAX -- A young man who pleaded guilty to making child pornography should get jail time for the offence when he is sentenced Thursday, said the father of the 15-year-old victim at the centre of the unique and high-profile case.

The man, who can't be identified under a statutory publication ban, said he plans to attend the sentencing of the accused who pleaded guilty in September in Halifax provincial court.

But the father of the young woman, who is deceased, said Wednesday that he has been told by the Crown that the 20-year-old will likely not get jail time.

"I think getting probation or a suspended sentence for a crime like that, it's insulting, to put it mildly," he said in an interview.

"It's almost like there's no consequences for it. I mean, it has devastating effects on people."

The victim's name is also protected by a mandatory publication ban, something her parents say has restricted them in telling her tragic story, which had made national headlines before the court-ordered ban.

Both parents plan to deliver victim impact statements at the sentencing hearing.

Brendan Crawley, a spokesman for the Ontario-based Crown attorney who is handling the matter, said the lawyer would not comment on the case or indicate what they are seeking.

Defence lawyer Ian Hutchison did not respond to a request for an interview.

The Crown dropped a second charge of distributing child pornography against the accused, who cannot be named under the Youth Criminal Justice Act because he committed the offence when he was 17.

Wayne MacKay, a Halifax lawyer and cyberbullying expert, said it's likely the accused will not be handed a prison sentence because of his age and the fact that it was his first offence.

"The likely penalties are not going to be large and it may well be a suspended sentence," he said. "The sentence is likely to be a fairly modest one."

MacKay said that could change if amendments as proposed by the federal government are made to the Criminal Code that could see harsher penalties for the creation and distribution of intimate images.

Based on an agreed statement of facts read into the court record by Crown lawyer Alexander Smith, the girl went to the accused's house where she, a friend and four male youths drank alcohol in the fall of 2011.

Smith said the accused took a photograph later that night of one of the male youths having sex with the girl while she was vomiting. She was unaware that the picture was being taken and did not give consent to it, Smith said.

After the accused was arrested in the summer of 2013, he told police that he sent the photograph to the male youth who had sex with the girl the next day, Smith said. The accused is not alleged to have sent the photograph to anyone else, but the image was distributed to numerous people, most of whom attended the same high school as the girl.

The girl died at age 17 after she was taken off life-support following a suicide attempt in the spring of 2013. Her family says she was bullied for months as a result of the photo.

The other accused, now 19, is scheduled to stand trial on Nov. 24 on a charge of distributing child pornography.