Attorney general to review teen boys' rape sentences

After arguing that their sentences were too lenient, the attorney general would look at the sentencing of three teenage boys who assaulted two girls in separate assaults.

The boys, two 15 and one 14, were not given custodial sentences for the 2024 and 2025 attacks in Fordingbridge, Hampshire.

The rapes were brazenly filmed on their phones and later posted a portion of the video on YouTube, but they later posted some of the The teenagers were given youth rehabilitation orders (YRO) and walked out of court with 11 rape convictions between them.

According to a government spokesperson, the attorney general's office had received multiple demands for the sentences to be reviewed under the Unduly Lenient Sentence (ULS) scheme.

It said it revealed the public's surprise at the details of this horrible lawsuit and that its lawyers, the attorney general and the solicitor general, were "urgently investigating the lawsuit with the utmost care and concern.

They will now have up to 28 days to make a decision on the matter and then refer it to the Court of Appeal for a hearing.

Jess Phillips, a former Home Office minister, has described the sentences as "unduly generous.

For those young women facing a rape trial like this one, it will not have been a simple thing to do,

Phillips, who served as Minister of safeguarding and violence against women and girls until her resignation earlier this month, said. "For many young people going through a court trial like that, it would have taken months, if not years.

The Labour MP said that social media had negatively affected young boys while speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today show.

These young people seemed to be raping for information in order to post it on social media and show it to their friends who were gloating about rapping these poor young women,

she said.

It seems unduly generous to me and has a greater public interest than just the case itself in the message sent.

The sentences, according to Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch, were a disgrace, and shadow Justice Minister Dr. Kieran Mullan said: It cannot be right that teenage boys can commit violent crimes of rape like this and avoid going to prison entirely. These sentences have been appealed to the attorney general.

Anyone who feels that a sentence for a serious offence is too short should request that it be investigated under the ULS scheme.

Wendy Joseph, a former Old Bailey criminal judge, said on Saturday that if an adult committed a similar felony, the punishment would have been 15 years more, given the victims' ages, the fact a knife was present, and that the assaults were being caught.

If you have children, especially as young as this,

she said, the judge slashes the sentence, so you could be looking at a sentence of half or less than half.

"However, this judge has come to the conclusion that assistance is more relevant than punishment.

"It's a brave step to take. You can see why he did it because the law states that children's wellbeing takes precedence over most other things.

As opposed to being supervised and

having their freedom curtailed in other ways outside of criminalization,

Kirsty Brimlow, chair of the Bar Council of England and Wales, asked whether children aged 10 to 14 should be in the criminal justice system rather than being prosecuted and "haveing their liberty curtended

Joseph said in her experience of sentencing, it was not fruitful to put a 15 or 16-year-old boy into a youth detention center, where they then proceed to jail.

It would expose them to such harmful influences, she said.

'More serious'

The boys, who cannot be identified because they are children, had denied the charges but were found guilty in March after a hearing in Southampton Crown Court. Judge Nicholas Rowland said on Thursday that he would avoid criminalizing the very young boys. The judge stressed the seriousness of the offences, adding that the recording of the assaults made them even

more serious. The first child was 15 years old when she was assaulted three times in an underpass by the River Avon in Fordingbridge. She had flown to visit one of the boys for the first time after he had started a

relationship

with her on social media site Snapchat, but two other boys followed her. When the second child arrived at Fordingbridge Recreation Ground and was raped repeatedly in a nearby field, she was 14 years old. A video clip of her sitting motionless on the ground with

her face buried in her hands,

was seen in court, while another boy was seen yelling words of encouragement. Jodie Mittel KC, the country's first prosecutor, said online videos of the first incident had gone viral, prompting people to make comebacks about her. She has also received messages calling her a

slag. On Thursday, she read a poem she had written that included the words 'All I want to do is die,' and she will no longer be afraid about when it comes.

I feel ashamed, insecure, and uncomfortable in my own body,

she said in a tweet on behalf of the second victim. While rehabilitation of prisoners wasvital,Phillips said,prisoners must be rehabilitated

within our youth system. The MP for Birmingham Yardley accused social media of contributing to the rise of misogyny among young men.

The truth is that we've allowed young people, especially young boys, to be experimented on by social media businesses for about ten years. Very little had been done in the last decade to see what effect violent pornography was having on young people, and the victims in this case had paid the price, she said.

Why is a sentence reviewed?

A member of the public can visit a government website and request that the attorney general review the outcome under theunduly lenient sentence policy. If the attorney general and specialist lawyers agree that the sentencing is in violation of normal expectations of such a felony, they can bring the matter to the Court of Appeal. Three of England and Wales' most senior judges will hear arguments about whether the sentence was appropriate or appropriate, considering detailed instructions to trial judges and the particular circumstances of the situation. Phillips, on the other hand, has encouraged the girls' families to contact her if they want to challenge the sentences. On Thursday, Det Sgt Naomi Stocker of Hampshire Police said that the team was "liaising with our Crown Prosecution Service colleagues in connection with the sentencing decision.