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 instead imposed youth rehabilitation orders ranging from 18 months to three years.
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 will face 180 days of intensive supervision.
Judge Rowland noted the boys’ low intelligence, with one having an IQ in the “bottom 1% of his contemporaries” and diagnoses of ADHD or cognitive impairments. He said “peer pressure played a large part” and that the boys had a “limited understanding of consent”. He stressed the seriousness of the crimes but added that none of them needed to go to prison.
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 decide to appeal. The Crown Prosecution Service’s Siobhan Blake noted a trend of youth-on-youth cases involving more serious and violent behaviour.
One victim, who read a poem in court, said: “All I want to do is die, I no longer have fear for when that comes.” The other victim said she struggles to attend school and suffers from nightmares, feeling “ashamed, insecure and uncomfortable in my own body”. The judge praised their bravery.
