A girl who was raped by two teenage boys has told the BBC that a judge's decision to spare them jail sentences was like a "rock straight in my face".
The report indicates that a girl who was raped by two teenage boys has told the BBC that a judge’s decision to spare them jail sentences was like a “rock straight in my face”.
It further notes that speaking exclusively to Laura Kuenssberg, the girl, now 16, said: ‘What was the point in putting me through that?”
The girl, who spoke anonymously alongside her family, stated 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”.
The attorney general is to review the sentence given by Judge Nicholas Rowland, who had stated on Thursday he wanted to avoid “criminalising” the “very young” boys.
Warning: This story contains details some may find distressing
The teenager was 15 when she was raped in an underpass by the River Avon in Fordingbridge, Hampshire.
She had travelled to meet one of the boys for the first time in November 2024 after he had begun a “relationship” with her on social media platform Snapchat.
The two defendants, who are now 15, were also convicted of attacking a second victim, who was raped in a field in January 2025. Another boy, now 14, was also convicted for his involvement in the second attack.
The boys filmed the rapes on their phones and later shared some of the footage online.
At the sentencing hearing at Southampton Crown Court, the judge emphasised the “seriousness” of the crimes and stated the filming of the assaults made them even “more serious”. After making the comments about their age, he praised the boys for how they had behaved during the trial.
But the girl and her family want the sentences to be changed, and the boys sent to jail, saying the sentences amounted to a “slap on the wrist”.
The attorney general will have 28 days to decide whether the sentences should be referred to the Court of Appeal.
The girl’s mother appealed directly to the prime minister, saying: “Please help. If it was your daughter, your niece, your son, your nephew, your family member, would you be happy?
“Because we’re not happy and I don’t think any other member of the public will be happy too. So you’re in a position of power to help, so please help.”
