UK teen rape victim criticises judge’s decision after three boys spared jail.
A teenage rape victim has criticised a court decision to spare three boys from prison after they were convicted over attacks on two girls in Hampshire, UK.The victim, now 16, spoke to the BBC after the defendants were handed Youth Rehabilitation Orders instead of custodial sentences at Southampton Crown Court.“What was the point in putting me through that?” she said.The girl was 15 when she was raped in an underpass near the River Avon in Fordingbridge in November 2024 after travelling to meet one of the boys following conversations on Snapchat.Two boys, now aged 15, were convicted over the assault and a separate rape involving another teenage girl in January 2025. A third defendant, now 14, was also convicted for his role in the second attack.The court heard the assaults were filmed on mobile phones, with some footage later circulated online.The two older boys received three-year Youth Rehabilitation Orders with intensive supervision and surveillance requirements, while the youngest defendant was handed an 18-month order.During sentencing, Judge Nicholas Rowland said he wanted to avoid “criminalising” the “very young” defendants, although he acknowledged the seriousness of the crimes and said filming the assaults made them “more serious”. The judge also said peer pressure had played “a large part” in the incidents.Reacting to the ruling, the victim said the decision felt “like a rock straight in my face”.“It 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,” she said.The teenager also described the emotional strain of reliving the assaults during the court proceedings.“Why did I sit and put myself through the pain of going to court, going through a trial, reliving everything because of evidence and watching it all happen again?” she said.She said she waited six months before reporting the attack because she struggled to cope with the trauma.“The reason I said it was because I was losing it. I was spiraling. I needed help, but I didn’t know how to get it, so I spoke up,” she said.Her family also criticised the sentencing outcome, describing the punishments as inadequate.The girl’s mother appealed for authorities to reconsider the case and urged the government to intervene.“Please help,” she said.“If it was your daughter, your niece, your son, your nephew, your family member, would you be happy?”Her partner said he felt “physically sick” after hearing the sentencing decision and claimed the perpetrators had “got away scot-free”.
