'Only appropriate sentence' for three boys spared jail over rape of two teenage girls is detention, court hears
The “only appropriate sentence” for three boys given “unduly lenient" sentences over the rape of two teenage girls is detention, a court has heard.
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Three boys, two aged 15 and one aged 14, were given youth rehabilitation orders after the girls, 14 and 15, were raped in two separate incidents in Fordingbridge, Hampshire, in November 2024 and January 2025.
One of two girls raped by the said she doesn’t think she will “ever be the same” after the attack.
Their sentences prompted public outcry after the trio were spared jail. It was referred to the Court of Appeal as “unduly lenient” by Attorney General Lord Hermer days later.
At a hearing of the Attorney General’s bid at the Court of Appeal today, Tom Little KC said the “only appropriate sentence” for the three teenagers was detention.
“In summary it is submitted that the extent and nature of the offending was so serious such that the only appropriate sentence for X, Y and Z was detention.”
Mr Little continued: “Had the judge properly assessed the seriousness of the offences he could only reasonably have concluded that lengthy sentences of detention were required for both X and Y and that a sentence of detention was required for Z.”
Read more: 'Lenient' sentences handed to teens who raped girls will go to Court of Appeal, PM announces
The barrister also said that Judge Nicholas Rowland, who sentenced the boys at Southampton Crown Court in May, oversaw a “difficult sentencing exercise” given the ages of the offenders and the victims, but that the case involved “the application of well-established principles”.
He said: “We accept… that the judge did try to apply the relevant principles, but our submission is he misapplied them along the way, the cumulative effect of which was to lead to unduly lenient sentences.”
But he added that said some of the sentencing judge’s decisions “are troubling and appear to minimise aspects of the case”.
He said that the judge correctly said that previous consensual sexual activity was not mitigation, but appeared to wrongly find that the offenders had reduced culpability.
Mr Little continued: “They have still been convicted by a jury of rape offences including the jury being sure that consent was not given and that they did not have a reasonable belief in consent.
“This appears to represent a significantly outdated approach to the sentencing of sexual offences by the judge
“It may, of course, be the position that certain aggravating features do not exist where there has been earlier consensual sexual activity but that is very different from a finding of reduced culpability in these circumstances.
“Such a finding was an error in approach by the judge which appears to have permeated through to his approach to the seriousness of the case.”
Concluding the hearing, the Lady Chief Justice Baroness Carr said she and two other senior judges hope to hand down a ruling on Thursday afternoon on whether the sentences of three teenage boys for the rape of two girls are “unduly lenient”.
She said: “We have obviously got a great deal to consider."
The boys are expected to attend Southampton Crown Court at 2pm on Thursday and appear at the Court of Appeal in London via videolink.
“We would then, after a short oral exchange with the boys, proceed to give our judgment, and we will decide how we can most effectively do that in writing and orally,” Baroness Carr said.
It comes as one of the girls raped by the boys said she feels like she has been “carrying what happened every day” since the day she was attacked aged 15 by two boys in Hampshire in November 2024.
Jazmine (whose name has been changed) said that the rape trial “broke something inside me”.
The attackers, now aged 15 and 14 at the time, proceeded to rape a second girl in January 2025, encouraged by a third boy now aged 14.
All three were later convicted of multiple rape and indecent image offences.
The three attackers avoided imprisonment in May.