A judge\u2019s decision not to jail the teenage boys who raped two girls has been described as a \u201crock straight in my face\u201d by one of their victims.<\/p>\n
Southampton crown court heard the two boys, both aged 15 at the time, raped the teenage girls in two separate attacks that occurred on 26 November 2024 and 17 January 2025 in Fordingbridge, Hampshire.<\/p>\n
The boys, whose identities have not been released because of their ages, were given youth rehabilitation orders and made subject to intensive supervision and surveillance. Their sentences are to be reviewed by the attorney general.<\/p>\n
In an interview with the BBC\u2019s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg, one victim, who was 15 when she was assaulted, asked: \u201cWhat was the point in putting me through that?\u201d<\/p>\n
Speaking anonymously alongside her family, the victim, who has since turned 16, said the judge\u2019s decision \u201calmost made it seem as if what the boys did was not OK, but it was OK in the eyes of the law because they were still children\u201d.<\/p>\n
The victim\u2019s mother also voiced her frustration at the sentence and asked the prime minister to help, saying: \u201cIf it was your daughter, your niece, your son, your nephew, your family member, would you be happy?<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause we\u2019re not happy, and I don\u2019t think any other member of the public will be happy too. So you\u2019re in a position of power to help, so please help.\u201d<\/p>\n
The mother\u2019s partner also said he had felt \u201cphysically sick\u201d when he heard the judge\u2019s decision, adding: \u201cIt seems to me like the victims are the ones suffering and the perpetrators are the ones that have seemingly got away scot-free.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jodie Mittell KC, representing the prosecution, told the court the girl had visited one of the defendants in November 2024 after meeting him on Snapchat.<\/p>\n
The prosecutor said the girl had performed sex acts on the then 14-year-old boy, but when the second defendant arrived she had become \u201cscared and anxious\u201d. The pair then raped her and filmed the incident.<\/p>\n
The trial heard that afterwards videos of the assault were sent around, leading to the girl being harassed, including receiving messages calling her a \u201cslag\u201d.<\/p>\n
The second victim, who was 14 at the time, was raped in a field near to Fordingbridge recreation ground in Janaury. The assault was also filmed.<\/p>\n
During the sentencing hearing on Thursday, a 15-year-old boy was handed a three-year youth rehabilitation order with 180 days of supervision and surveillance after being charged with the rape of each of the two girls as well as two charges for indecent images.<\/p>\n
A second 15-year-old was given the same sentence for three charges of rape against each of the two victims and four counts of taking indecent images in relation to filming of the incidents, while a third boy, 14, was given a youth rehabilitation order for 18 months for two charges of rape in the January incident by encouraging the second defendant and an offence of indecent images.<\/p>\n
The emotional and mental capacity of each of the boys was highlighted during the sentencing, with the court hearing that all three had conditions that affected their maturity.<\/p>\n
The court heard that the first 15-year-old had been diagnosed with ADHD as well as anxiety, the second 15-year-old had an IQ in the \u201cbottom 1% of his contemporaries\u201d and had also been diagnosed with ADHD, while the 14-year-old was described as having \u201cmild cognitive impairment\u201d.<\/p>\n
Judge Nicholas Rowland told the defendants: \u201cI have to remember that you are not small adults. I have to think how likely you are to do serious things again and I need to make sure you do not do serious things again in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cI should avoid criminalising these children unnecessarily and understand the effects of their behaviour and support their reintegration into society\u201d and said that \u201cpeer pressure played a large part in what went on\u201d.<\/p>\n
Donna Jones, Hampshire police and crime commissioner, told the BBC that a custodial sentence would have been appropriate. She said: \u201cWhat is really alarming is the judge\u2019s comments praising these three young males for their good conduct from the charge up to the point of their sentence. But let\u2019s not forget, these were not guilty pleas that were entered.\u201d<\/p>\n
A government spokesperson said the attorney general\u2019s office had received \u201cmultiple\u201d requests for the sentences to be reviewed under the \u201cunduly lenient\u201d scheme.<\/p>\n
He stated: \u201cWe share the public\u2019s shock at the details of this horrific case, and our thoughts are with the young victims during this distressing time.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe law officers are urgently reviewing the case with the utmost care and attention.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A judge\u2019s decision not to jail the teenage boys who raped two girls has been described as a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":601173,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-601172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601172","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=601172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601172\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/601173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=601172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=601172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=601172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}