The UK government is urgently reviewing the sentences given to three teenage boys who avoided custody for the rape of two girls in Hampshire, after the sentences were described as 'unduly lenient'.
Jess Phillips, the former minister for safeguarding and violence against women and girls, said the youth rehabilitation orders sent a 'bad message'. The two girls were raped in separate incidents in Fordingbridge in November 2024 and January 2025.
In the first attack, a 15-year-old girl was raped by two boys, both aged 14 at the time. In the second, the three boys threatened a 14-year-old girl with a knife; two raped her while the others encouraged and filmed the assaults.
At Southampton Crown Court on Thursday, two 15-year-old boys received three-year youth rehabilitation orders with intensive supervision, and a 14-year-old received an 18-month order. Judge Rowland said he aimed to avoid 'criminalising these children unnecessarily'.
Hampshire police and crime commissioner Donna Jones called the sentences 'far too lenient', while a government spokesperson confirmed the attorney general's office had received multiple requests for review under the unduly lenient sentences scheme.
