Get you up to speed: Teenagers who raped girls spared jail ‘to avoid criminalising them’ | News UK
Three teenagers were found guilty of raping two young girls in separate incidents in Fordingbridge, Hampshire. Despite the severity of the crimes, none of the boys received a jail sentence from the court.
The three boys received youth rehabilitation orders rather than custodial sentences, as the court aimed to balance accountability with potential for rehabilitation. Each boy is subject to a ten-year restraining order prohibiting contact with the victims, alongside an additional three-month curfew.
The case has sparked significant public outrage, with advocates calling for a reassessment of sentencing practices for sexual offences. Moving forward, the campaign “This Is Not Right,” launched on November 25, 2024, aims to address violence against women and highlight the urgent need for reform.
What remains unclear — It is not specified how the court’s decisions will affect the three boys’ future behaviour or rehabilitation.
Three teenagers who raped two girls avoid jail to support rehabilitation
Three teenagers who raped two lone young girls in separate attacks have walked free from court.
The first victim, then aged 15, started speaking with one of the boys, also 15, on Snapchat before meeting up in Fordingbridge, Hampshire, on November 26, 2024.
After engaging in consensual sex acts, she described feeling ‘cornered, trapped petrified’ when a second 15-year-old turned up and the pair raped her while another boy filmed it.
The second victim, then 14, was raped in a field near to Fordingbridge recreation ground on January 17 last year.
That attack was also filmed.
None of the three boys was given a jail sentence.
The court heard two have been diagnosed with ADHD and the judge said he needed to ‘avoid criminalising these children unnecessarily’ and ‘support their reintegration into society’.
To the girls whose lives have been ruined by the attacks, he added: ‘I hope when you look back on today’s date you will take some comfort from the fact you have shown that courage in coming along to court.’
The first victim bravely read her victim impact statement from the same witness box, as well as a poem she had written directed towards her attackers.
She described how her mental health had deteriorated since the incident, leading her to isolate herself from her friends.
This Is Not Right
On November 25, 2024 WTX launched This Is Not Right, a campaign to address the relentless epidemic of violence against women.
With the help of our partners at Women’s Aid, This Is Not Right aims to shine a light on the sheer scale of this national emergency.
You can find more articles here, and if you want to share your story with us, you can send us an email at vaw@metro.co.uk.
Read more:
The poem included the line: ‘All I want to do is die, I no longer have fear for when that comes.’
She added: ‘No one deserves the trauma of being raped.’
In a statement read on behalf of the second victim, she said her school attendance had suffered and added: ‘I often feel overwhelmed, anxious and emotionally exhausted to the point where sitting in a classroom becomes unbearable.’
She described suffering nightmares and struggling to sleep, and added: ‘I feel ashamed, insecure and uncomfortable in my own body.’
The girl added: ‘The person I was before the incident has completely gone, and sometimes I feel like I am grieving the person I used to be.’
The first 15-year-old was given a youth rehabilitation order (YRO) for three years with 180 days of intensive supervision and surveillance (ISS) for the rape of each of the two girls and two indecent images charges.
The court heard that he had been diagnosed with ADHD as well as ‘long-standing anxiety’.
The second 15-year-old was given the same sentence for three charges of rape against each of the two victims and four counts of taking indecent images in relation to filming of the incidents.
The court was told his IQ was in the ‘bottom 1% of his contemporaries’ and that he had also been diagnosed with ADHD.
A third boy, aged 14, was given a YRO for 18 months for two charges of rape in the January incident by encouraging the second defendant and an offence of indecent images.
He was described as having ‘mild cognitive impairment’.
Judge Nicholas Rowland told the defendants: ‘I have to remember that you are not small adults.
‘I have to think how likely you are to do serious things again, and I need to make sure you do not do serious things again in the future.’
He added: ‘I should avoid criminalising these children unnecessarily and understand the effects of their behaviour and support their reintegration into society.’
He added that ‘peer pressure played a large part in what went on’.
The judge told the girls: ‘The sentence I am going to pass cannot possibly undo what happened to you.’
The boys were also made subject to a three-month curfew and given a restraining order for 10 years not to contact their victims.
Great article! This really puts things into perspective. I appreciate the thorough research and balanced viewpoint.
Interesting read, though I think there are some points that could have been explored further. Would love to see a follow-up on this topic.
Thanks for sharing this! I had no idea about some of these details. Definitely bookmarking this for future reference.
Well written and informative. The examples provided really help illustrate the main points effectively.
This is exactly what I was looking for! Clear, concise, and very helpful. Keep up the excellent work!