Three teenage boys convicted of knife-point rape and other serious sexual offences against two teenage girls in Hampshire have been spared custodial sentences. The judge, Nicholas Rowland, said he wanted to avoid “criminalising these children unnecessarily” and stressed their young age, low intelligence, and limited understanding of consent.
The boys, aged between 13 and 14 at the time of the offences, physically overpowered and sexually assaulted the girls, aged 14 and 15, in separate incidents two months apart. The attacks were “brazenly filmed” on mobile phones, prosecutors said. One 15-year-old was convicted of three charges of rape and four counts of taking indecent images; he received 180 days of intensive supervision. The other two defendants, also 15 and 14, were given youth rehabilitation orders ranging from 18 months to three years.
In the first incident, in January 2025, a 14-year-old girl was threatened with a knife, forced to leave her phone and AirTag in a shop, and taken to a secluded field where she was raped by two defendants as they filmed. The second victim, aged 15, was raped in November 2024 in an underpass by the River Avon in Fordingbridge after meeting one of the boys on Snapchat for what she thought was a first date. A video of her 90-minute ordeal was shared on social media, leading to abusive messages.
Victim impact statements revealed severe trauma. The first victim read a poem saying, “All I want to do is die, I no longer have fear for when that comes.” The second victim said she struggles to attend school and suffers from nightmares, adding, “The person I was before the incident has completely gone.” Judge Rowland praised their bravery.
Hampshire’s police and crime commissioner, Donna Jones, called the sentences “far too lenient” and said they “offer little comfort to their victims”. She offered support if the victims appeal. Siobhan Blake, of the Crown Prosecution Service’s Rape and Serious Sexual Offences unit, noted a trend of increasingly violent youth-on-youth cases.
