Court of Appeal Hears Arguments Over Community Sentences Given to Three Teenage Boys Convicted of Rape

The Court of Appeal heard arguments on July 1 that a judge imposed unduly lenient community sentences on three teenage boys convicted of rape. GB News reported that two boys aged 15, identified as X and Y, and one aged 14, identified as Z, received the sentences on May 21 at Southampton Crown Court after pleading guilty to a combined 10 counts of rape and seven indecent image offences.

The offences involved two separate victims attacked in Fordingbridge, Hampshire, in November 2024 and January 2025.

Judge Rowland found that the offences by the 15-year-olds crossed the custody threshold yet chose non-custodial outcomes to avoid unnecessarily criminalising children, describing custody as a last resort for young offenders. Attorney General Lord Hermer asked the Court of Appeal to increase the sentences.

Tom Little, representing the Attorney General, told the panel that the sentencing judge misapplied relevant principles and failed to reflect the true seriousness of the case, given the number of offences and the harm caused.

The three-judge panel consisted of Lady Chief Justice Baroness Carr of Walton-on-the-Hill, Lord Justice Edis and Mrs Justice Norton. The hearing also addressed a Crown Prosecution Service press release issued after sentencing that incorrectly stated one victim had been forced at knifepoint to leave her phone and an AirTag in a shop.

Judge Rowland explicitly ruled that the victim left the items by choice and that no knife was used to compel her participation.

The CPS corrected the release on June 10. Baroness Carr described the original release as containing fundamental errors and asked what steps the CPS would take to prevent similar mistakes. Tom Little said the corrections should have occurred immediately and that the matter had been investigated at the highest level.