UK Appeal Court Jails 2 Fordingbridge Boy Rapists for 4 Years, Overturning Lenient Sentences
Updated
Updated · bbc.co.uk · Jul 2
UK Appeal Court Jails 2 Fordingbridge Boy Rapists for 4 Years, Overturning Lenient Sentences
3 articles · Updated · bbc.co.uk · Jul 2
Summary
Four years' detention was imposed on two boys who raped two teenage girls in Fordingbridge after the Court of Appeal quashed their earlier non-custodial sentences.
Lady Chief Justice Sue Carr said the trial judge had erred by understating the offences' seriousness and psychological harm; if the pair had been adults, sentences of more than 10 years would have been required.
X and Y were 14 at the time of the attacks and convicted of 10 rape offences between them; 231 days already served on curfew will count toward their detention, and both now face lifelong no-contact orders.
A third boy, Z, who filmed one attack, kept his original sentence because the court said his younger age meant it did not need to intervene.
The case was sent to appeal after Attorney General Lord Hermer called the original youth rehabilitation orders unduly lenient, and both victims' families said the new ruling finally recognized the harm done.