speaking anonymously<\/a> to Britain\u2019s public broadcaster, the BBC, said that hearing the sentencing outcome felt like a \u201crock straight in my face.\u201d <\/p>\n\u201cWhat was the point of putting me through that?\u201d she said of the trial. <\/p>\n
During the trial, Southampton Crown Court heard how one of the victims, aged 15 at the time, was raped by two of the boys in an underpass after arranging to meet one of them for a date, according to a news release from the Crown Prosecution Service. <\/p>\n
Video of the rape, which lasted 90 minutes, was shared on social media, prosecutors told the court, according to Britain\u2019s Press Association (PA) news agency. <\/p>\n
Months later, in January 2025, a girl, aged 14 at the time, was assaulted after becoming separated from her friends, the CPS said. <\/p>\n
She was threatened with a knife and forced to leave her mobile phone and AirTag in a shop so she could not be tracked. She was then taken to a secluded area and raped by two of the boys while others \u201cencouraged the offending and filmed the assaults,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n
The perpetrators left the scene \u201cwhen they believed they had been disturbed,\u201d the CPS said, adding that the victim was later found distressed and reported the incident to police. <\/p>\n
All three boys accused in the case were convicted on multiple counts of rape on March 5. <\/p>\n
One of the boys, identified only as \u201cBoy A\u201d by the CPS, was convicted of two counts of rape and one count of taking indecent images of a child. A second, \u201cBoy B,\u201d was convicted on six counts of rape. Both were sentenced to three-year youth rehabilitation orders. <\/p>\n
The third boy was convicted of two counts of rape and has been sentenced to an 18-month youth rehabilitation order. <\/p>\n
As a result they will avoid custody, remain at home and complete a plan tailored and overseen by their local Youth Justice Service. <\/p>\n
At their sentencing, Judge Rowland said he wanted to \u201cavoid criminalizing these children unnecessarily,\u201d the Press Association reported. <\/p>\n
The court heard that one of the boys had an IQ in the \u201cbottom 1% of his contemporaries\u201d and was diagnosed with ADHD, according to the outlet. Another was also diagnosed with ADHD, while the third was described as having a \u201cmild cognitive impairment,\u201d the agency reported.<\/p>\n
Both Phillips and Olivarius agreed the sentences sent a detrimental message to both victims and perpetrators that even with a conviction, rape and other forms of sexual assault will be met with leniency.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust don\u2019t do it again in the next year or two and you\u2019ll be fine … that\u2019s the message that there is now. It\u2019s a totally free crime,\u201d Olivarius said, adding that she believed the judge \u201cshould be removed from the bench\u201d over the sentencing.<\/p>\n
Phillips said that while she was in favor of some form of rehabilitation for perpetrators of sexual assault, she believed that the assailants in this case should have also been \u201cincarcerated for their crimes as a matter of both punishment and public safety.\u201d <\/p>\n
She added that she did not believe any adequate rehabilitation program for young people currently exists in the U.K. to address the realities of sexual violence and misogyny in society.<\/p>\n
![\"Million](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/260528-violence-against-women-rs-42a0db.jpg\")
Protesters at a March demonstration against violence and discrimination against women.Zeynep Demir \/ Anadolu via Getty Images<\/p>\n
The Sentencing Council for England and Wales maintains that even in serious cases, a \u201ccustodial sentence should always be a measure of last resort for children and young people.\u201d <\/p>\n
In the U.S., by contrast, every state has at least one transfer mechanism allowing young people to be charged in the adult criminal legal system, according to The Sentencing Project, which advocates for \u201ceffective and humane\u201d responses to crime that minimize imprisonment.<\/p>\n
In both the U.K. and the U.S., there have long been challenges in seeing reports of sexual violence result in charges and, ultimately, convictions. <\/p>\n
In 2024, there were at least 71,227 incidents of rape recorded by police in England and Wales, according to Rape Crisis England & Wales, a charity. <\/p>\n
By the end of 2024, the charity said, charges were brought in just 2.7% of those cases.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn other words… fewer than 3 in 100 rapes recorded by police in 2024 resulted in someone being charged that same year,\u201d it says on its website.<\/p>\n
In the U.S., just last year, an NBC News investigation<\/a> found that less than 4% of reported rapes, sexual assaults and child sex abuse allegations in certain cities ever result in a sex crime conviction.<\/p>\nMeanwhile, Phillips said, victims are left to live with the impacts of the perpetrators\u2019 actions \u2014 with the survivors in this case forced to continue to relive their ordeals as the case continues on to the Court of Appeal. <\/p>\n
Speaking with the BBC, the other victim in the case said she lived in fear that she was going to see her assailants again, even with restraining orders in place, as she spoke of the devastating impact of their crimes.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like no matter what I do, I can always feel their hands on me, no matter how much I\u2019ve scrubbed,\u201d she told the broadcaster.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s always there and it just doesn\u2019t feel like my body anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-4673. The hotline, run by the Rape, Abuse, & Incest National Network (RAINN), can put you in contact with your local rape crisis center. You can also access RAINN\u2019s online chat service at rainn.org\/get-help.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LONDON \u2014 A judge\u2019s decision to spare three teenage boys found guilty of rape at knifepoint and other…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":619645,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-619644","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\/619644","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=619644"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619644\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/619645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=619644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=619644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=619644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"arrow\"](\"https:\/\/media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com\/image\/upload\/rockcms\/2026-01\/arrow-f55fa5.svg\"){kind=icon}
<\/p>\n![\"Jess](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/260528-jess-phillips-rs-699aa1.jpg\")
British MP Jess Phillips during a visit to a police control room in Birmingham last year.Joe Giddens \/ PA Images via Getty Images<\/p>\n