In a statement read out by barrister Charlotte Proudman following the appeal court ruling, the family of victim C1 – who has been referred to as Jazmine (not her real name) – said that they had lived through “a nightmare that no family should ever have to endure”.<\/p>\n
They added: “Today’s judgement cannot erase what our daughter has suffered but it does acknowledge the seriousness of these offences.”<\/p>\n
She also read the words of Jazmine, who said: “I feel like I am the one who has been sentenced, I feel like I am the one living in a prison even though I did nothing wrong.”<\/p>\n
“What happened to me has left me harmed so severely that I do not think I will ever be the same,” she said.<\/p>\n
The statement continued: “We also wish to thank Laura Kuennesburg and the BBC for giving us a platform to be heard. Attorney general Lord Hermer for swiftly recognising the need for this appeal.”<\/p>\n
Jazmine’s family have set up the Stronger Than Silence Foundation – a charity providing support to survivors of sexual violence and their families.<\/p>\n
In a statement, the family of the victim C2 said the original sentences had been “devastating”.<\/p>\n
“[They] left us feeling that the harm caused to our daughter had not been fully recognised. <\/p>\n
“While no sentence can undo the trauma she has endured, today’s decision gives us a greater sense that justice has been served and that those responsible have been held properly accountable.<\/p>\n
“We are immensely proud of our daughter’s courage and strength throughout this long and difficult process.”<\/p>\n
Warning: This story contains details some may find distressing<\/p>\n
At the time of the rapes, X and Y were 14 and Z was 13. They were convicted of 10 rape offences between them.<\/p>\n
When Judge Nicholas Rowland passed the initial sentences at Southampton Crown Court in May<\/a>, there was an outcry from the girls and their families as well as from politicians. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer described it as “an appalling case”<\/a>.<\/p>\n In her statement, Carr said Rowland had carried out a “careful sentencing exercise” but the non-custodial sentences for X and Y were “unduly lenient” as they did not take full account of the psychological harm caused to both victims.<\/p>\n Rowland had given X and Y three-year Youth Rehabilitation Orders (YRO) with 180 days of intensive surveillance and supervision.<\/p>\n Z, now 14, was given an 18-month YRO.<\/p>\n All three boys were also made subject to a three-month curfew and given a restraining order for 10 years not to contact their victims.<\/p>\n One of the girls – C1 – was 15 when she was raped by X and Y in November 2024 at an underpass near a river in Fordingbridge after first engaging in some consensual sexual activity with X. Parts of the rape were filmed.<\/p>\n The second girl – C2, who was 14 – was raped by X and Y in January 2025 in a recreation ground in Fordingbridge. Again there had been some consensual sexual activity before the rape began and, again, parts of the rape were filmed, this time by boy Z.<\/p>\n During the appeal hearing, the Lady Chief Justice Sue Carr criticised the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) for putting out an inaccurate press release suggesting a knife was involved in the rapes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a statement read out by barrister Charlotte Proudman following the appeal court ruling, the family of victim…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":635392,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-670225","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\/670225","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=670225"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670225\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/635392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=670225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=670225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=670225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}