Keir Starmer Calls Appalling UK Rape Sentences After Boys Spared Jail in Hampshire

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer called a rape case in which three teenage boys were spared custodial sentences “appalling” and said it was “right” that law officers were urgently reviewing the sentences.

“- Published Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has described a case in which three teenage boys were spared custodial sentences over the rape of two girls as "appalling"”

BBC

The attacks were carried out in Fordingbridge, Hampshire, with two girls raped in separate incidents in November 2024 and January 2025, and Judge Nicholas Rowland at Southampton Crown Court said he wanted to “avoid criminalising these children unnecessarily”.

BBC

At sentencing on Thursday, two 15-year-olds received youth rehabilitation orders (YROs) and intensive supervision and surveillance (ISS) for the rapes of the two girls, while a 14-year-old boy received an 18-month YRO for charges including rape in the January 2025 incident by encouraging another defendant.

The BBC reported that one victim told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme the decision felt like “a rock straight in my face,” and the BBC said the boys filmed the rapes on their phones and later shared some of the footage online.

The attorney general will have 28 days to decide whether the sentences should be referred to the Court of Appeal, and cabinet minister Darren Jones told the BBC he expects the decision to be made quicker than that.

The victim, now 16, told the BBC that 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”.

In a post on X responding to the BBC interview, Starmer wrote, “This is an appalling case and it is right that law officers are urgently reviewing the sentences.”

LBC

Darren Jones told the BBC he expected the attorney general’s decision to be made quicker than 28 days, and he said the girls “deserve justice, as do their families, both for them but also for other girls that are put in that position”.

Reform UK MP Robert Jenrick told the BBC that “If a judge has made a very bad error, which I think has happened in this case, they should be accountable for it,” while Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said she was “sickened” and that “The crime could hardly be graver, yet the punishment was no punishment at all.”

Dame Rachel de Souza, the Children’s Commissioner for England, told the BBC she was “deeply concerned” and said her office would reach out to the families to offer support.

The BBC said the attorney general will have 28 days to decide whether the sentences should be referred to the Court of Appeal, after Judge Nicholas Rowland stressed the “seriousness” of the crimes and said filming made them even “more serious”.

“Two girls were raped in Fordingbridge, Hampshire, by two 15-year-olds who were given non-custodial sentences by a judge at Southampton Crown Court who said he wanted to “avoid criminalising these children unnecessarily””

London Evening Standard

The BBC reported that the boys would not have been sent to prison if they had been given custodial sentences because people aged under 18 serve custodial sentences in secure centres for children.

The Independent reported that the attorney general will not review the court’s decision but will consider whether to refer it to the Court of Appeal under the unduly lenient sentence scheme, and it said Darren Jones told the BBC he was “not allowed to get ahead of the attorney general’s decision”.

The Independent also quoted the judge explaining his sentence as “I should avoid criminalising these children unnecessarily and understand the effects of their behaviour and support their reintegration into society,” while it said peer pressure played a “large part” in what went on.

The BBC added that a government spokesperson said, “We share the public's shock at the details of this horrific case,” and that “the law officers are urgently reviewing the case with” the utmost care and attention.