Boys’ sentences for 11 counts of rape ‘too lenient’
Nikki Mitchell,South of England home affairs correspondentand
Marcus White,South of England
Three teenage boys who raped two girls in separate attacks have been given sentences that are “far too lenient’, a police chief has said.
Prosecutors said the assaults in Fordingbridge, Hampshire, in 2024 and 2025, were “brazenly filmed” on phones and showed the boys laughing and encouraging each other.
Two of the boys were 14 when they carried out their attacks, the third boy was 13 when he aided and abetted the assaults on the second girl. Among other sanctions, the boys were given Youth Rehabilitation Orders and walked out of court with 11 rape convictions between them.
Hampshire Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) Donna Jones said the sentences “offer little comfort to their victims”.
Warning: This story contains details some may find distressing
Det Sgt Naomi Stocker from Hampshire Police praised the girls “immense bravery” and added that “we are liaising with our partners at the Crown Prosecution Service in relation to the sentence passed”.
Explaining his sentencing decision at Southampton Crown Court, Judge Nicholas Rowland said: “I should avoid criminalising these children unnecessarily and understand the effects of their behaviour and support their reintegration into society.”
The judge did stress the “seriousness” of the boys’ crimes and said their filming of the attacks made them even “more serious”.
He then emphasised their “very young” ages and said: “None of you need to go to prison today.”
Two of the boys’ mothers burst into tears as the sentence was read out.
The two older boys, now 15, were given three-year Youth Rehabilitation Orders (YRO) with 180 days of intensive surveillance and supervision.
The third boy, now 14, was given an 18-month YRO.
All three boys were also made subject to a three-month curfew and given a restraining order for 10 years not to contact their victims.
Speaking later, Jones said: “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.”
The PCC added: “Should the victims and their families take the decision to appeal the sentences, I will offer my support.”
Crown Prosecution Service
The victim of the first attack was 15 when she was raped three times in an underpass by the River Avon in Fordingbridge, during what she had thought was a first date.
She had travelled to meet one of the boys for the first time, after he had begun a “relationship” with her on social media platform Snapchat.
But then two other boys appeared.
During the trial, the court heard she was “petrified”, felt “cornered and trapped” and feared being thrown into the river.
The boys shared video of the attacks on social media, resulting in her receiving abusive messages, prosecutors said.
During the sentencing hearing, the girl spoke anonymously from behind a screen and said: “No one deserves the trauma of being raped. I will never get that innocence back.”
She also wrote a poem directed towards her attackers which included the line: “All I want to do is die. I no longer have fear for when that comes.”
The second girl was 14 when she met the boys at Fordingbridge Recreation Ground, and was raped repeatedly in a nearby field.
Forensic evidence revealed her leggings had been cut with a “sharp instrument”.
Video footage seen in court during the trial showed her lying motionless on the ground with “her face buried in her hands”, while another boy was heard shouting words of encouragement.
In a statement read on her behalf immediately before sentencing, she described suffering “flashbacks”.
“Sometimes I can still feel their hands on me,” her statement said.
She added: “I feel ashamed, insecure and uncomfortable in my own body. The person I was before has completely gone.”
Earlier in the hearing, and after their testimony, Judge Rowland spoke directly to the other teenage victim and told her: “The sentence I’m about to pass cannot undo what has happened to you.
“I hope when you look back you’ll at least take some comfort that you – both of you – have shown great courage.”
The perpetrators, who cannot be named because they are children, were convicted of rape even in circumstances where they aided and abetted another boy to carry out an attack.
Their filming of the assaults also led to convictions for taking indecent images of children.
The court heard the two older boys, who were involved in both attacks, had each served less than a month in youth detention between their arrests and trial.
The Crown Prosecution Service warned that rapes and sexual assaults involving young people were “on the increase”.
Speaking before sentencing, senior prosecutor Siobhan Blake said: “There is a real part for all of us to play as citizens to make sure that we have really clear conversations with our teens about misogynistic attitudes and push back really hard on those.”
And Jones added: “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.”
