Two teens have been sentenced to four years’ detention (Image: PA)
Two 15-year-old boys who were spared custody for the rape of two girls in Fordingbridge have been sentenced to four years’ detention after the Court of Appeal ruled their sentences were “unduly lenient”. The 15-year-olds, known as X and Y, were given youth rehabilitation orders (YRO) and put on a supervision programme in May by a judge at Southampton Crown Court, over the rape of two girls in separate attacks in Fordingbridge, Hampshire, in November 2024 and January 2025.
A third boy aged 14, known as Z, was also given a YRO for encouraging one of the offenders – and for an indecent images offence – over the January attack. The judge handing down the sentence in May said he should “avoid criminalising these children unnecessarily” and that detention was a “last resort”. However, 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.
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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.”
The judge also said that while the sentencing judge, Judge Nicholas Rowland, faced a “difficult sentencing exercise”, a custodial sentence for X and Y was “unavoidable”.
At the sentencing hearing, Judge Rowland said that although X and Y’s offences “crossed the custody threshold” and posed a “high risk of serious harm” to young females, he had to consider their backgrounds.
He said X had been diagnosed with ADHD and “long-standing anxiety” while Y had an IQ in the bottom 1%, had ADHD with “extreme neurodevelopmental impairment” and presented “more like an eight-year-old”.
X was previously given a three-year youth rehabilitation order (YRO) with 180 days of intensive supervision and surveillance for raping and taking indecent images of both victims.
Y received the same sentence for three charges of rape against each of the two victims and four counts of taking indecent images by filming the incidents.
Z was given an 18-month YRO for two charges of rape related to the latter victim after encouraging the second defendant, and for an offence of indecent images.
But 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.