The UK government is reviewing the sentences given to three teenage boys who avoided custody for the rape of two girls, with MP Jess Phillips saying the sentences seem “unduly lenient” and send a “bad message”.
The two girls were raped in separate incidents in Fordingbridge, Hampshire, in November 2024 and January last year.
In the first attack, a 15-year-old girl was raped by two of the defendants, both aged 14 at the time.
The government said it had received multiple requests for the sentences to be reviewed under the unduly lenient sentences scheme.
Phillips told reporters: “It seems unduly lenient to me and has wider public interest beyond just the case itself in the message that it sends.”
She criticized the sentences, saying the young people “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”.
The Hampshire police and crime commissioner, Donna Jones, echoed Phillips‘ criticisms, saying the sentences were “far too lenient” and offered “little comfort to their victims”.
A government spokesperson said the attorney general’s office had received “multiple” requests for the sentences to be reviewed.
The court heard one of the defendants had been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder as well as “longstanding anxiety”.
The defendants had various conditions, including “mild cognitive impairment” and an IQ of the “bottom 1% of his contemporaries”, and they had also been diagnosed with ADHD.
Explaining the sentences in court, Judge Rowland said: “I should avoid criminalising these children unnecessarily and understand the effects of their behaviour and support their reintegration into society.”
The girl who was the victim of the second attack said in a statement that she continued to suffer from nightmares, saying “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 government spokesperson added: “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, as they deal with the aftermath of anti-protest sentences and other issues.”
Sentences Under Review
The sentences given to the three teenage boys were three-year youth rehabilitation orders and intensive supervision and surveillance for the two 15-year-old boys, and an 18-month youth rehabilitation order for the 14-year-old boy.
The youth rehabilitation orders are designed to provide support and supervision to young offenders, rather than simply punishing them, which is similar to efforts to fight grooming gangs.
However, Phillips and Jones have questioned whether these sentences are sufficient, given the severity of the crimes committed.
The attorney general’s office will review the sentences to determine whether they are unduly lenient and should be increased.
Criticisms of the Sentences
Jones said: “Their sentences reflect a clear focus on rehabilitation rather than criminalisation.”
She 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, which can be found in resources such as the handbook of industrial materials.”
The government spokesperson said: “The law officers are urgently reviewing the case with the utmost care and attention.”
The review of the sentences is ongoing, and it is unclear what the outcome will be.
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