Three teenage boys convicted of knife-point rape and other serious sexual offences against two teenage girls in Hampshire have not been given custodial sentences because the judge said he \u201cshould avoid criminalising these children unnecessarily\u201d.<\/p>\n
The boys, who were aged between 13 and 14 at the time of their offences, physically overpowered and sexually assaulted the girls, who were aged 14 and 15, in separate incidents two months apart.<\/p>\n
The boys, who cannot be named for legal reasons, were sentenced to youth rehabilitation orders ranging between 18 months and three years for their roles in the attacks, which prosecutors said were \u201cbrazenly filmed\u201d on mobile phones.<\/p>\n
They were convicted of rape even in circumstances where they aided and abetted another boy to carry out an attack.<\/p>\n
One 15-year-old boy was convicted of three charges of rape against the two victims, who did not know each other, and four counts of taking indecent images. He will be subject to 180 days of intensive supervision and surveillance.<\/p>\n
The court heard he had an IQ of the \u201cbottom 1% of his contemporaries\u201d and had been diagnosed with ADHD. Another of the rapists, also 15, was also diagnosed with ADHD as well as \u201clongstanding anxiety\u201d, while the third defendant, now 14, was described as having a \u201cmild cognitive impairment\u201d.<\/p>\n
Judge Nicholas Rowland told them: \u201cNone of you need to go to prison today.\u201d Explaining his sentence, he said he wanted to support the boys\u2019 reintegration into society, adding: \u201cI should avoid criminalising these children unnecessarily.\u201d<\/p>\n
He stressed the \u201cseriousness\u201d of the boys\u2019 crimes and said their filming of the attacks made them even \u201cmore serious\u201d.<\/p>\n
He added that he needed to remember the boys were \u201cvery young\u201d, had low intelligence, a \u201climited understanding of consent\u201d and \u201cpeer pressure played a large part in what went on\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think of you as very young and none of you have been in any big trouble before,\u201d he said. \u201cYou have all done very well with the restrictions put in place throughout the trial.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hampshire\u2019s police and crime commissioner (PCC), Donna Jones, said the sentences \u201coffer little comfort to their victims\u201d.<\/p>\n
She added: \u201cI\u2019m deeply concerned these boys felt they could carry out such terrifying acts and share them online and not go to prison. Their sentences reflect a clear focus on rehabilitation rather than criminalisation. They are far too lenient.\u201d<\/p>\n
The PCC added: \u201cShould the victims and their families take the decision to appeal the sentences, I will offer my support.\u201d<\/p>\n
Southampton crown court was told that in January 2025, the 14-year-old girl had been threatened with a knife after becoming separated from her friends.<\/p>\n
Forced to leave her mobile phone and AirTag in a shop so her movements could not be tracked, she was made to walk to a secluded field, where she was raped by two of the defendants as they filmed the incident.<\/p>\n
After she reported the assault to the police, an investigation identified that a second victim, aged 15, had been raped in November 2024 by two of the same defendants.<\/p>\n
She had travelled alone to meet one of the boys for what she thought would be their first date after chatting to him on Snapchat.<\/p>\n
The victim was then raped by two of the boys in an underpass by the River Avon in Fordingbridge and a video of her 90-minute ordeal was shared on social media, resulting in her receiving abusive messages, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n
The victim of the first incident came to the court for the sentencing hearing and, screened from the view of the boys, described how her mental health had deteriorated since the incident.<\/p>\n
She said: \u201cI will never get that innocence back again.\u201d<\/p>\n
She read aloud a poem she had written, saying: \u201cAll I want to do is die, I no longer have fear for when that comes.\u201d<\/p>\n
A statement read on behalf of the second victim revealed she struggles to go to school now and suffers from nightmares and sleeplessness. \u201cI feel ashamed, insecure and uncomfortable in my own body,\u201d she said. \u201cThe person I was before the incident has completely gone.\u201d<\/p>\n
The judge praised the bravery of the two girls for providing their statements and giving evidence.<\/p>\n
Siobhan Blake, who leads the Crown Prosecution Service\u2019s Rape and Serious Sexual Offences unit, said the incident was \u201cdeeply distressing\u201d and was part of a trend.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur prosecutors tell us they are seeing youth-on-youth cases with some involving more serious and more violent behaviour.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is vital young people are educated and informed about consent and that harmful and misogynistic attitudes are tackled as early as possible to prevent these crimes. Everyone has a part to play.<\/p>\n
\u201cYoung people must understand that sexual activity without consent is a serious criminal offence that can lead to them being prosecuted.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rebecca Hitchen, spokesperson at the End Violence Against Women Coalition, said: \u201cWe are hearing that young men are perpetrating more and more sexually violent crimes, and this case is a horrific example of this.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe must question what young men are being taught and exposed to that results in them planning and executing such appalling violence as a group, particularly given the additional harm and degradation caused by the assaults being filmed.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said sexual violence devastates victims\u2019 lives, and its effects ripple out across their communities, \u201ccreating a source of heightened fear for women and girls trying to go about their daily lives\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile we do not know the online environments these boys were exposed to, online misogyny is so pervasive that few young people will escape its reach. Questions must be asked about the extent to which misogynistic content online has contributed to the extreme harm they have committed. While perpetrators must be held accountable, we must also ensure that tech platforms are put under scrutiny for their role in such harm,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
All three boys have been made subject to a 10-year restraining order against their victims.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Three teenage boys convicted of knife-point rape and other serious sexual offences against two teenage girls in Hampshire…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":597448,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-597447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=597447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597447\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/597448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=597447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=597447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=597447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}