Boys spared custody for rape of two girls now sentenced to four years’ detention after appeal
The boys were spared jail previously
Two 15-year-old boys who were spared custody for the rape of two girls have been sentenced to four years’ detention after the Court of Appeal ruled their original sentences were “unduly lenient”.
Prison time was the “only appropriate sentence” for three teenage boys who were spared custody over the rape of two girls in Fordingbridge, the Court of Appeal was told earlier this week.
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.
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.”
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.”