'Lenient' sentences handed to teens who raped girls will go to Court of Appeal, PM announces
The sentences in a rape case that spared two teenage boys jail are being sent to the Court of Appeal after a review under the unduly lenient scheme, Sir Keir Starmer has announced.
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Two girls were raped in Fordingbridge, Hampshire, by two 15-year-olds who were given non-custodial sentences by a judge at Southampton Crown Court who said he wanted to “avoid criminalising these children unnecessarily”.
Asked about the case during a visit to East Sussex on Monday, the Prime Minister said: “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
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.
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 crime has sparked a national outcry with the punishment widely criticised for being “too lenient”.
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.
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."
Speaking on Sunday, the Prime Minister said it was “right" that law officers were urgently reviewing the sentences.
It comes after the victim spoke out on Sunday, likening the sentence to a "rock in my face".
In a social media post responding to the interview with one of the victims, Starmer said: “This is a harrowing and brave testimony.“
Reform UK's Robert Jenrick condemned the fact two teenage boys who raped two girls were spared prison sentences and said the perpetrators “have to go to jail”.
On Friday, forer Home Office minister Jess Phillips criticised the sentence given to the youths as sending a “bad message”, with Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch saying they had received “no punishment at all”.