Victim of teenage rapists spared jail says she feels 'too scared' to leave her home
The girl was raped by three boys when she was 14 in Fordingbridge, Hampshire in January 2025 who all avoided jail sentences
A 15-year-old girl who was raped by three boys in Fordingbridge has described feeling "punished" by the lenient sentence handed to her attackers.
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The girl was raped by three boys, two aged 15 and one aged 14, in Fordingbridge, Hampshire in January 2025 after being threatened with a knife. Two of her attackers had raped another teenage girl in November 2024.
The boys were given youth rehabilitation orders and the two older boys were also made subject to intensive supervision and surveillance (ISS) after committing what police described as "terrifying acts", which left one of the victims telling the court: "All I want to do is die".
The sentences are being sent to the Court of Appeal after a review under the unduly lenient scheme, after a national outcry with the punishment widely criticised for being “too lenient”.
The girl, now aged 15, told The Times the sentences had left her feeling "punished for something that wasn’t my fault because it just means I can’t go out...I just wanted to be able to go out without the fear of seeing them or being around them."
Read more: 'Lenient' sentences handed to teens who raped girls will go to Court of Appeal, PM announces
She added: “I just kind of thought, well why did I go through all of that for nothing to come of it? Why did I put myself through that much? To have to deal with this for the rest of my life with them being right, it wasn’t really fair.”
The teenager, who was due to sit her GCSEs, said she had fallen "quite far behind" because of how much school she had missed and would probably have to retake some of her exams. She added she did want a future but found it "hard to see where I can end up" because she was worried about her attackers.
The trial at Southampton crown court was told the teenager was cornered by the three boys after she became separated from her friends near Fordingbridge Recreation Ground
The first defendant threatened her with a knife and instructed the girl to leave her phone and tracking device in a shop before forcing her to walk to a remote field, where she was repeatedly attacked.
One of the attackers held her down and used a knife to cut her clothes before forcing himself on her.
Video footage seen in court showed her lying motionless on the ground with "her face buried in her hands" while another boy shouted words of encouragement.
One of the 15-year-old boys was sentenced to a youth rehabilitation order (YRO) for three years with 180 days of intensive supervision and surveillance (ISS) for the rape of each of the two girls and two indecent images charges.
The second was handed 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.
The 14-year-old was given an 18-month YRO for two charges of rape in the January incident by encouraging the second defendant and an offence of indecent images.
During the sentencing at Southampton Crown Court on Thursday, Judge Nicholas Rowland told the defendants that he was mindful of their ages.
The judge said: "I 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."
Explaining his sentence, he said: "I should avoid criminalising these children unnecessarily and understand the effects of their behaviour and support their reintegration into society."
Both of the 15-year-old girl's parents said they felt "completely let down" by the justice system, The Times reported.
Her father said: “We as parents do what we can to protect our children. When we get to a stage like this where you can’t really protect them, you have to put your faith within the justice system to do the right thing. And they’ve just completely let us down."
He added he wanted to see "the justice system do something that will impact them for life because this impacts her for life.”
Asked about the case during a visit to East Sussex on Tuesday, Sir Keir Starmer said the decision to refer the case to the Court of Appeal was “clearly the right outcome”.
He added: “I think it’s a really distressing case. I think it’s distressing for everybody to see, to hear about.”
He praised the “courage” of the victims but said he found the case “distressing as a politician and “as a father.”
“There are questions about the sentence. The attorney general has power to refer a case to the Court of Appeal if the attorney general thinks that the sentence is too lenient.
“The attorney general has now exercised that power. So I can announce that that case will now go to the Court of Appeal, and the Court of Appeal will now review the sentence in that case, and that is clearly the right outcome.”
Read more: Starmer calls for 'urgent review' into 'harrowing' rape case after two boys avoid jail
Speaking to LBC on Tuesday, Shadow National Security and Safeguarding Minister Alicia Kearns said she was "relieved" the Attorney General had been reviewing the case.
She added: "But this is a result of the public speaking out and recognising this was an appalling, appalling miscarriage of justice."
She said the initial outcome has left her with "serious questions" about the public's confidence in the justice system.