Judge spares boys jail time for filmed rape of two girls

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A girl who was raped by two teenage boys has attacked a judge’s decision to spare them jail sentences as being like a “rock straight in my face”.

The victim was 15 years old when she was raped in an underpass near the River Avon in Fordingbridge, Hampshire.

The two defendants, who are now 15, were also convicted of raping a second victim at knifepoint in a field in January 2025. Another boy, now 14, was also convicted for aiding and abetting the second attack.

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The boys filmed the attacks on their phones and later shared some of the footage online.

During sentencing at Southampton Crown Court on Thursday, the judge stressed the “seriousness” of the crimes and said the filming of the assaults had made them even “more serious”.

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However, he said he wanted to avoid “criminalising” the “very young boys” and praised their behaviour during the trial.

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The girl told the BBC that she had questioned “what was the point” of going through the trauma of the trial only for the judge to say that it was “fine” for the boys to rape her because they were “still children”.

She told Laura Kuenssberg: “The words hit like a rock straight in my face. He 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.

“It meant that, 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? It sort of gave me a sense of, what’s the point? What was the point in putting me through that just to say that it’s fine?”

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She said: “What is really alarming is the judge’s comments praising these three young males for their good conduct from the charge up to the point of their sentence.

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