A judge’s decision not to jail the teenage boys who raped two girls has been described as a “rock straight in my face” by one of their victims.
Southampton crown court heard the two boys, both aged 15 at the time, raped the teenage girls in two separate attacks that occurred on 26 November 2024 and 17 January 2025 in Fordingbridge, Hampshire.
The boys, whose identities have not been released because of their ages, were given youth rehabilitation orders and made subject to intensive supervision and surveillance. Their sentences are to be reviewed by the attorney general, a decision endorsed by Keir Starmer on Sunday.
In an interview with the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg, one victim, who was 15 when she was assaulted, asked: “What was the point in putting me through that?”
Speaking anonymously alongside her family, the victim, who has since turned 16, said the judge’s decision “almost made it seem as if what the boys did was not OK, but it was OK in the eyes of the law because they were still children”.
The victim’s mother also voiced her frustration at the sentence and asked the prime minister to help, saying: “If it was your daughter, your niece, your son, your nephew, your family member, would you be happy?
“Because we’re not happy, and I don’t think any other member of the public will be happy too. So you’re in a position of power to help, so please help.”
In a social media post later on Sunday, Keir Starmer described the interview as “a harrowing and brave testimony”. He added: “This is an appalling case and it is right that law officers are urgently reviewing the sentences.”
The mother’s partner also said he had felt “physically sick” when he heard the judge’s decision, adding: “It seems to me like the victims are the ones suffering and the perpetrators are the ones that have seemingly got away scot-free.”
Jodie Mittell KC, representing the prosecution, told the court the girl had visited one of the defendants in November 2024 after meeting him on Snapchat.
The prosecutor said the girl had performed sex acts on the then 14-year-old boy, but when the second defendant arrived she had become “scared and anxious”. The pair then raped her and filmed the incident.
The trial heard that afterwards videos of the assault were sent around, leading to the girl being harassed, including receiving messages calling her a “slag”.
The second victim, who was 14 at the time, was raped in a field near to Fordingbridge recreation ground in Janaury. The assault was also filmed.
During the sentencing hearing on Thursday, a 15-year-old boy was handed a three-year youth rehabilitation order with 180 days of supervision and surveillance after being charged with the rape of each of the two girls as well as two charges for indecent images.
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, while a third boy, 14, was given a youth rehabilitation order for 18 months for two charges of rape in the January incident by encouraging the second defendant and an offence of indecent images.
The emotional and mental capacity of each of the boys was highlighted during the sentencing, with the court hearing that all three had conditions that affected their maturity.
The court heard that the first 15-year-old had been diagnosed with ADHD as well as anxiety, the second 15-year-old had an IQ in the “bottom 1% of his contemporaries” and had also been diagnosed with ADHD, while the 14-year-old 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.”
He added: “I should avoid criminalising these children unnecessarily and understand the effects of their behaviour and support their reintegration into society” and said that “peer pressure played a large part in what went on”.
Donna Jones, Hampshire police and crime commissioner, told the BBC that a custodial sentence would have been appropriate. She said: “What is really alarming is the judge’s comments praising these three young males for their good conduct from the charge up to the point of their sentence. But let’s not forget, these were not guilty pleas that were entered.”
The cabinet minister Darren Jones told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg on Sunday show that the victims deserved justice.
Jones, who appeared tearful as he spoke, said his role as a minster meant he was “not allowed to get ahead of the attorney general’s decision”, but added that he believed “those girls deserve justice, as do their families, both for them but also for other girls put in that position – and quite frankly other boys need to know they can’t behave in that way and get away with it”.
Calling the interview with the girl and her family “hard to watch”, Jones said that “no parent wants their daughter to be in those circumstances, and you don’t want a society in which girls are growing up in those circumstances”.
• This article was amended on 26 May 2026 to replace the main image.
