Two teen rapists sentenced at Court of Appeal after backlash over ‘unduly lenient’ ruling
The two 15-year-old boys, known as X and Y, were given non-custodial sentences in May for a combined 10 counts of rape and seven indecent image offences related to two victims
(Image: Xinhua/REX/Shutterstock)
Two 15-year-old boys who initially avoided custody for the rape of two girls in Fordingbridge have been handed four years’ detention after the Court of Appeal deemed their sentences “unduly lenient”.
The boys, referred to as X and Y, along with another 14 year old known as Z, were given non-custodial sentences in May for a total of 10 counts of rape and seven indecent image offences related to two victims, who were separately assaulted in the Hampshire town in November 2024 and January 2025.
The two older lads participated in both attacks, while the 14-year-old egged on the rape of the second victim. They were given non-custodial sentences in May after a judge at Southampton Crown Court stated 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” just days later.
At a hearing on Wednesday, solicitors for the Attorney General argued that detention was the “only appropriate sentence”, while barristers for the boys maintained the sentences were correct and centred on their rehabilitation.
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 unaltered.
Reading a summary of their judgment to X and Y, who appeared via video link from Southampton Crown Court, Baroness Carr stated: “We have decided that we do need to change your sentences and both of you do need to go into detention.”
She went on to say: “What you did was so bad that we have no other choice.”
Speaking to 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.”
It came after Judge Nicholas Rowland commended the boys for their conduct during the trial. In sentencing, he told them: “None of you need to go to prison today”.
He also said the boys are “very young”, had low intelligence, had a “limited understanding of consent”, and were vulnerable to “peer pressure”. He added: “I think of you as very young and none of you have been in any big trouble before.
“You have all done very well with the restrictions put in place throughout the trial. [The second boy] and [the third boy] your problems are quite bad.”
The girl described the sentence as a “rock straight to the face” and added 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”.
She told the BBC: “Why did I put myself through the pain of going to court, going through a trial, reliving everything…It sort of gave me the sense of what’s the point?”.
Baroness Carr said that Judge Rowland “undervalued the seriousness of their offending and the serious harm caused by it to the complainants”.
She continued: “The involvement in the two incidents taken together was such that an immediate and substantial period of detention was required.”
The three judges also extended X and Y’s restraining orders, preventing them from contacting either victim, from 10 years to an indefinite order.
Baroness Carr also said that there had been “misinformed and inappropriate commentary” on the case, having previously criticised the Crown Prosecution Service over inaccuracies in a press release issued when the boys were first sentenced in May, which were not corrected for several days.
