Two 15-year-old boys who were spared custody for the rape of two girls in Fordingbridge have been sentenced to four years’ detention after the Court of Appeal ruled their sentences were “unduly lenient”.
Case background
The boys, known as X and Y, and another aged 14 known as Z, were given non-custodial sentences in May for a combined 10 counts of rape and seven indecent image offences related to two victims, who were separately attacked in the Hampshire town in November 2024 and January 2025. The two older boys were involved in both attacks, while the 14-year-old encouraged the rape of the second victim.
They were given non-custodial sentences in May after a judge at Southampton Crown Court said he should “avoid criminalising these children unnecessarily” and that detention was a “last resort”, but the Attorney General referred the sentences to the Court of Appeal as “unduly lenient” days later.
Appeal hearing
At a hearing on Wednesday, lawyers for the Attorney General said detention was the “only appropriate sentence”, while barristers for the boys said the sentences were correct and focused on rehabilitating them. On Thursday, the Lady Chief Justice Baroness Carr, Lord Justice Edis and Ms Justice Norton sentenced X and Y to four years’ detention, while leaving Z’s sentence unchanged.
Reading a summary of their judgment to X and Y, who appeared by video link from Southampton Crown Court, Baroness Carr said: “We have decided that we do need to change your sentences and both of you do need to go into detention.” She continued: “What you did was so bad that we have no other choice.”
Decision on youngest offender
Addressing Z, who also attended Southampton Crown Court, Baroness Carr said: “We have decided that because you were very young and find some things really very difficult to understand, and because you were only involved on one occasion, we do not need to change your sentence.” The judge also said that while the sentencing judge, Judge Nicholas Rowland, faced a “difficult sentencing exercise”, a custodial sentence for X and Y was “unavoidable”.
Original sentencing
At the sentencing hearing, Judge Rowland said that although X and Y’s offences “crossed the custody threshold” and posed a “high risk of serious harm” to young females, he had to consider their backgrounds. He said X had been diagnosed with ADHD and “long-standing anxiety” while Y had an IQ in the bottom 1%, had ADHD with “extreme neurodevelopmental impairment” and presented “more like an eight-year-old”.
X was previously given a three-year youth rehabilitation order (YRO) with 180 days of intensive supervision and surveillance for raping and taking indecent images of both victims. Y received the same sentence for three charges of rape against each of the two victims and four counts of taking indecent images by filming the incidents. Z was given an 18-month YRO for two charges of rape related to the latter victim after encouraging the second defendant, and for an offence of indecent images.
