Judge Gives Youth Rehabilitation Orders to Three Boys Convicted of Knifepoint Rapes, Citing Cognitive Impairments and Sentencing Guidelines

Judge Nicholas Rowland at Southampton Crown Court in Hampshire issued youth rehabilitation orders to three boys convicted of multiple counts of rape at knifepoint and other sexual offenses. The boys, who were 13 and 14 at the time of the attacks, received orders of three years, three years, and 18 months respectively.

One victim, aged 15, was raped by two of the boys in an underpass in November 2024 after arranging to meet one of them for a date.

A video of the 90-minute assault was shared on social media. In January 2025, a second victim, aged 14, was threatened with a knife, forced to leave her mobile phone and AirTag in a shop, taken to a secluded area, and raped by two of the boys while others encouraged the offending and filmed the assaults.

The perpetrators left when they believed they had been disturbed; the victim was later found distressed and reported the incident to police.

All three boys were convicted on March 5. Boy A was convicted of two counts of rape and one count of taking indecent images of a child.

The court heard that one boy had an IQ in the bottom 1 percent of his contemporaries and was diagnosed with ADHD, another was diagnosed with ADHD, and the third had a mild cognitive impairment. Judge Rowland said he wanted to avoid criminalizing these children unnecessarily.

The Sentencing Council for England and Wales maintains that even in serious cases a custodial sentence should always be a measure of last resort for children and young people.

The boys will remain at home and complete plans overseen by their local Youth Justice Service. Prime Minister Keir Starmer called the outcome distressing and announced that the case would go to the Court of Appeal. Attorney General Richard Hermer said he received multiple requests to review the sentences and stated there is an epidemic of violence against women and girls in this country.

’s minister for safeguarding and violence against women and girls between July 2024 and May 2026, told NBC News she was horrified by the lenient sentences. “Immediately I just thought that this is the wrong sentence,” she said. Ann Olivarius told NBC News she felt like there was a brick that landed in the face of all women and that the sentence violates the rule of law.

One victim told the BBC that hearing the sentencing outcome felt like a rock straight in my face and asked what was the point of putting me through that. A petition calling for the judge’s removal was signed by more than 200,000 people. In 2024 there were at least 71,227 incidents of rape recorded by police in England and Wales.

7 percent of those cases, according to Rape Crisis England & Wales.