Judge failed to take Fordingbridge rapes seriously enough when he spared teenage boys prison, court hears

The judge who freed three teenage boys from prison after raping two girls and filming the sexual assaults did not take the crimes seriously enough, the Court of Appeal has heard.

In May, two 15-year-old boys and a 14-year-old boy were given non-custodial sentences for a total of 10 rapes and seven indecent images offenses relating to teenage girls who were separately attacked in Fordingbridge, Hampshire, in November 2024 and January 2025.

The two older boys were involved in both attacks, while the 14-year-old boy encouraged the rape of the second victim.

Their sentences sparked a public outcry and days later they were referred to the Court of Appeal by the Attorney-General, Lord Hermer, for being “overly lenient”.

At Wednesday’s hearing, Solicitor General Tom Little KC argued that for legal reasons the “only appropriate sentence” for the three boys, known as X, Y and Z, was detention.

In written submissions to the panel of judges, he said: “Had the judge correctly assessed the seriousness of the offences, he could only reasonably have concluded that long-term detention sentences were necessary for both X and Y, and that detention sentences were also necessary for Z.”

He acknowledged that Judge Nicholas Rowland, who sentenced the boys at Southampton Crown Court in May, had overseen a harsh sentencing of child offenders. But he argued that the assessment of harm and guilt was “fundamentally flawed”.

He continued: “The judge failed to stand back and properly consider and reflect the true seriousness of the case because he did not view it as serious as it was.”

Mr Little also accused the judge of taking a “significantly outdated” approach. The lawyer said the judge correctly said that prior consensual sexual activity with the victims was not a mitigating factor, but incorrectly concluded that the offenders had reduced the crime.

Mr Little continued: “They were still convicted of rape by a jury, including a jury who were satisfied that consent had not been given and that they had no reasonable belief in consent.

“This appears to represent a significantly outdated approach to judicial sentencing of sexual offences.”

In his sentencing speech, Judge Rowland said the second defendant, known as Y, had ADHD with an IQ in the bottom 1 per cent and could not cope with ordinary schooling. His mother compared him more to an eight-year-old child.

Judge Rowland said he was “fairly confident” Y’s culpability was diminished “by virtue of his profound disabilities”.

The sentencing judge noted that the third and youngest boy, Z, was also found by a psychologist to have “very low intellectual capacity.”

But Mr Little said the sentences given to

One of the 15-year-old boys was given a three-year youth rehabilitation order (YRO) with 180 days of intensive supervision and supervision for his rape and taking indecent photographs of both victims.

The second boy received the same sentence for three counts of rape against each of the two victims and four counts of making indecent images by filming the events.

The 14-year-old was given an 18-month YRO for two rape charges and indecent images offenses relating to the second victim after he encouraged the second defendant.

The family of one of the victims, who used the pseudonym Jazmine to remain anonymous, said in a statement ahead of the appeal hearing that her life had “changed forever”, adding that they were “forced to appear before one of the highest courts in the land just to ask for a full understanding of the seriousness of Jazmine being raped by two young boys”.

“Today’s hearing is about much more than the Jazmine case,” they added. “This is about every survivor watching to see how the criminal justice system responds to the devastating harm that comes from rape.”

Jazmine said the hearing at Southampton Crown Court was “traumatic” and would never be the same.

“I can’t just go on,” he said. “The trial was horrific. It wasn’t just difficult; it was traumatic. It made me relive what happened over and over again. The trial lasted over five and a half weeks and I had to give evidence.”

He continued: “It was implied that I wanted to. It was implied that I was experienced in what I did. It was implied that I chose it or was involved in it.”

“I can’t tell you how humiliating and painful this was. I was 15 years old. I was a child who had been raped. I felt like I was being treated like I had done something wrong.”

Clare Wade KC, for

He said he had already served the equivalent of 18 months under curfew while awaiting trial, adding: “He will be vulnerable in custody; he will be detained with criminal colleagues and will come under the influence of much more established criminals.”

Edward Henry KC, on behalf of boy Y, said the teenager, who was 14 at the time of the attacks, had been made a “pariah” as a result of the media attention given to the case.

He told the court the public had been “massively misinformed” due to an error in the Crown Prosecution Service’s press release on the case, which incorrectly claimed that one of the attacks had taken place at knifepoint.

“Y behaved very deplorably and shamefully and of course deserves to be punished,” he said. “But the public outcry, the scorn, and the sheer force of hate on social media and the like has severely aggravated his sentence since May 22.”

He said his family were advised to leave home, adding: “The extreme stigma in his community left Y an outcast.

“He has nightly panic attacks where he feels like he’s dying. He’s 15 and his IQ is in the top percentile.”

He said the boy had a “constellation” of neurodevelopmental deficiencies that “significantly compromised” his judgment and “significantly diminished his culpability.” He noted that Boy Y had already served the equivalent of a 17-month sentence, including 20 days in youth detention and a curfew for the remainder, before the hearing.

The hearing continues before Lady Chief Justice Baroness Carr, Lord Justice Edis and Mrs Justice Norton, the head of youth justice in England and Wales.