Government to review 'unduly lenient' sentences of boy rapists who avoided jail after outcry

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The three boys, two aged 15 and one aged 14, were given youth rehabilitation orders (YRO) and the two older ones were also made subject to intensive supervision and surveillance (ISS)after the rape of two girls in two separate incidents in Fordingbridge, Hampshire.

A Government spokesman said the attorney general’s office had received “multiple” requests for the sentences to be reviewed under the Unduly Lenient Scheme.

He said: “We share the public’s shock at the details of this horrific case, and our thoughts are with the young victims during this distressing time.“The law officers are urgently reviewing the case with the utmost care and attention.”

The trial at Southampton Crown Court heard that two girls were raped in two separate incidents in Fordingbridge, Hampshire, the first attack on November 26 2024 and the second on January 17 2025.

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It comes after shadow safeguarding minister Alicia Kearns told LBC'S Shelagh Fogarty that the sentencing had left her with 'serious questions about how anyone can have confidence in the criminal justice system."

Calling for the boys' identity to be unmasked, she said: ""I think their crimes are so heinous, but I think there is a public interest point where perhaps they should be named. "How do you know if you live in the Southampton area and your daughter starts a relationship with a young boy of that age, that he's not one of those who committed this heinous crime."

On Friday, forer Home Office minister Jess Phillips has criticised the sentence given to the youths, who avoided custodial sentences, as sending a “bad message”, with Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch saying they had received “no punishment at all”.

Ms Phillips, who served as minister for safeguarding and violence against women and girls until earlier this month, said: “It seems unduly lenient to me and has wider public interest beyond just the case itself in the message that it sends.

“For those young women, going through a rape trial like this will not have been a simple thing to do, it will have been many, many months, if not years, to achieve any sort of justice, and I am afraid to say it sends a bad message.

“These young people, it seems, were essentially raping for content in order to put it on social media and share it to their friends, gloating about raping these poor young women.”

Ms Badenoch posted on X: “I have been sickened all day by the news of three boys who lured two schoolgirls, raped them and filmed it on their phones while they laughed and egged each other on.

“When they finally stood before a judge this week, they were handed ‘rehabilitation orders’ and walked out without serving a single day behind bars.

“Not in prison, not in custody or a young offender institution.

“The judge said, ‘None of you need to go to prison’. What message does that send to rapists?

“The crime could hardly be graver, yet the punishment was no punishment at all. It’s the collapse of consequences and the rot runs right through the justice system.”

Donna Jones, Police and Crime Commissioner for Hampshire and Isle of Wight, said that she was concerned that the boys could commit such “terrifying acts” and not face a custodial sentence.

She added that she would support the families of the victims if they sought to appeal against the “leniency” of the sentences.

She said: “This is an extremely disturbing case. I’m deeply concerned these boys felt they could carry out such terrifying acts and share them online and not go to prison.

“Their sentences reflect a clear focus on rehabilitation rather than criminalisation. They are far too lenient.

“As they stand, they offer little comfort to their victims as they try to rebuild their lives after such harrowing experiences.

“Should the victims and their families take the decision to appeal the sentences, I will offer my support.

“The education of young people about sexual violence and misogynistic attitudes is vitally important if we’re to prevent crimes like this from happening again.

“My thoughts remain with the two young girls and their families.”

A 15-year-old boy was sentenced to a three-year YRO with 180 days of ISS for the rape of each of the two girls and two indecent images charges.

The court heard that he had been diagnosed with ADHD as well as “long-standing anxiety”.

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.

The court was told that he had an IQ of the “bottom 1% of his contemporaries” and had been diagnosed with ADHD.

A third boy, aged 14, was given a YRO for 18 months for two charges of rape in the January incident by encouraging the second defendant and an offence of indecent images.

He was described as having “mild cognitive impairment”.

Judge Nicholas Rowland told the defendants: “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 added: “I should avoid criminalising these children unnecessarily and understand the effects of their behaviour and support their reintegration into society.”

He added that “peer pressure played a large part in what went on”.

The victim of the first incident came to the court for the sentencing hearing and, screened from the view of the boys, read her victim impact statement as well as a poem she had written directed towards her attackers.

She described how her mental health had deteriorated since the incident leading her to isolate herself from her friends.

She said: “I was caught off-guard, I never want that to happen again, I will never get that innocence back again.”

The poem included the line: “All I want to do is die, I no longer have fear for when that comes.”

She added: “No-one deserves the trauma of being raped.”

In a statement read on behalf of the second victim, she said her school attendance had suffered and added: “I often feel overwhelmed, anxious and emotionally exhausted to the point where sitting in a classroom becomes unbearable.”

She described suffering nightmares and struggling to sleep and added: “I feel ashamed, insecure and uncomfortable in my own body.”

She added: “The person I was before the incident has completely gone and sometimes I feel like I am grieving the person I used to be.”

The judge praised the bravery of the two girls for providing their statements and giving evidence and said to the first victim: “I hope when you look back on today’s date you will take some comfort from the fact you have shown that courage in coming along to court.

“You and (the second girl) have shown great courage in coming along to the trial and speaking as you did.”

He added: “The sentence I am going to pass cannot possibly undo what happened to you.”

The boys were also made subject to a three-month curfew and given a restraining order for 10 years not to contact their victims.

Jodie Mittel KC, prosecuting, told the trial that the girl in the November incident, who was 15 at the time, had visited the first defendant after meeting him on Snapchat.

The prosecutor said that after performing sex acts on the boy, who was then 14, she became “scared and anxious” when the second defendant joined them with a third boy who was not charged.

Ms Mittel said that the girl felt “cornered and trapped” and “petrified” as the two defendants raped her while the incident was filmed.

Ms Mittel said that afterwards, videos of the incident had been sent around and other people made jokes about her and she received messages calling her a “slag”.

The complainant in the January incident, who was 14 at the time, was raped in a field near to Fordingbridge recreation ground while the incident was also filmed.