Starmer 'appalled' by case of boys spared jail after raping teenage girls

Three teenage boys were convicted for raping two girls in separate incidents in Hampshire. The girls were 15 and 14 at the time of the attacks, and a third boy aged 13 was convicted for involvement in the second rape. The judge at Southampton Crown Court gave Youth Rehabilitation Orders, aiming to avoid unnecessarily criminalising the children. The orders are community-based and can include unpaid work, curfews, and treatment requirements. The victims and their families criticized the outcome, describing it as inadequate and like a “slap on the wrist.” The prime minister called the case appalling and said the attorney general is reviewing the sentences.

"Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has described a case in which three teenage boys were spared custodial sentences over the rape of two girls as "appalling". He added that it was "right" that the sentences given by a judge at Southampton Crown Court were being reviewed by the attorney general. Two girls, then aged 15 and 14, were raped in separate incidents in Fordingbridge, Hampshire, in November 2024 and January 2025, by two 14-year-olds."

"At a sentencing hearing for the boys on Thursday, Judge Nicholas Rowland said he wanted to "avoid criminalising these children unnecessarily". Instead, the boys were given Youth Rehabilitation Orders (YROs) - community sentences given to children, which can include unpaid work, curfews or a requirement to undertake treatment. But one of their victims told the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme that the decision was like a "rock straight in my face"."

"The girl, now 16, said it "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". She and her family want the sentences to be changed, and the boys sent to jail, saying the sentences amounted to a "slap on the wrist". "Why did I sit and put myself through the pain of going to court, going through a trial, reliving everything because of evidence and watching it all happen again?" the girl said."

"The teenager was 15 when she was raped in an underpass by the River Avon. She had travelled to meet one of the boys for the first time in November 2024 after he had begun a "relationship" with her on social media platform Snapchat. The second victim was raped in a field. The boys filmed the rapes on their phones and later shared some of the"

Read at www.bbc.com