Two teenage boys convicted of raping two girls in separate attacks in Fordingbridge, Hampshire, were not jailed. The first rape occurred on 26 November 2024 and the second on 17 January 2025. The boys, aged 15, received youth rehabilitation orders with intensive supervision and surveillance, and their sentences are to be reviewed by the attorney general. One victim said the outcome made it seem as if the assaults were not OK but were treated as acceptable under the law because the offenders were children. Prosecutors said one girl was raped after meeting a defendant on Snapchat, with the incident filmed and followed by messages and jokes. Another victim was raped in a field near a recreation ground while filmed. Both boys were also sentenced for indecent images charges and were reported to have ADHD and anxiety.
"A trial at Southampton crown court heard the girls were raped in two separate attacks in Fordingbridge, Hampshire, the first attack on 26 November 2024 and the second on 17 January 2025. The boys, aged 15, were given youth rehabilitation orders and made subject to intensive supervision and surveillance. Their sentences are to be reviewed by the attorney general."
"In an interview with the BBC's Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg, one of the victims who was 15 at the time of the incident asked: What was the point in putting me through that? Speaking anonymously alongside her family, the girl, now 16, said the judge's decision almost made it seem as if what the boys did was not OK, but it was OK in the eyes of the law because they were still children."
"Jodie Mittell KC, prosecuting, told the trial the girl had visited one of the defendants in November 2024 after meeting him on Snapchat. The prosecutor said that after performing sex acts on the boy, who was then 14, she became scared and anxious when the second defendant arrived, and the pair raped her while the incident was filmed. Mittell said that afterwards, videos of the incident had been sent around and other people had made jokes about her and she had received messages calling her a slag."
"In the sentencing hearing on Thursday, a 15-year-old boy was handed a three-year youth rehabilitation order with 180 days of supervision and surveillance for the rape of each of the two girls and two indecent images charges. The court heard he had been diagnosed with ADHD and anxiety. A 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 rela"
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