A government minister held back tears as he said two girls “deserve justice” after two teenage boys were spared jail for raping them.
The trial at Southampton Crown Court heard the girls were raped on two separate occasions in Fordingbridge, Hampshire. The first attack was on 26 November 2024 and the second was on 17 January 2025.
The boys, both aged 15, were given youth rehabilitation orders (YRO) and made subject to intensive supervision and surveillance (ISS).
Chief secretary to the prime minister Darren Jones heard testimony from one of the victims on Sunday, in which she said the judge’s decision not to hand down a prison sentence to her attackers was like a “rock straight in my face”.
In an interview with the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme, one of the victims – who was 15 at the time of the incident – asked: “What was the point in putting me through that?”
Speaking anonymously alongside her family, the now-16-year-old said the judge’s decision “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”.
The attorney general will not review the court’s decision but will consider whether to refer it to the Court of Appeal.
Asked for his thoughts on the case, Mr Jones said: “As a minister, what I can’t do is get ahead of the attorney general’s decision, but look, as a parent and as a member of the public, you can imagine what my personal view is on the situation.”
Pushed on what his view was, a visibly emotional Mr Jones said: “Those girls deserve justice, as do their families, both for them but also for other girls that are put in that position.
“And quite frankly, other boys need to know that they can’t behave in that way and get away with it.”
After Ms Kuenssberg said she thought he had found the interview difficult to listen to as a father, he said: “It was very hard to watch, because no parent wants their daughter to be in those circumstances, and you don’t want a society in which girls are growing up in those circumstances.”
During the BBC interview, the girl’s mother made an appeal to Sir Keir Starmer, asking: “If it was your daughter, your niece, your son, your nephew, your family member, would you be happy?
“Because we’re not happy, and I don’t think any other member of the public will be happy. So you’re in a position of power to help, so please help.”
Sir Keir later issued a public response to the interview, writing on X that the case was “appalling” and it was “right that law officers are urgently reviewing the sentences”.
“This is a harrowing and brave testimony,” he wrote.
“The girls at the heart of this case have shown extraordinary bravery and strength in heinous circumstances.
“This is an appalling case and it is right that law officers are urgently reviewing the sentences.”
The trial heard the girl had visited one of the defendants in November 2024 after meeting him on Snapchat. The prosecutor said that after performing sex acts on the boy, who was then 14, she became “scared and anxious” when the second defendant arrived. The pair raped her and filmed themselves doing so.
The court heard that afterwards, videos of the incident were sent around and other people made jokes about her, and that she received messages calling her a “slag”.
The complainant in the January incident, who was 14 at the time, was raped in a field near Fordingbridge recreation ground. That incident was also filmed.
At the sentencing hearing on Thursday, a 15-year-old boy was handed a three-year YRO with 180 days of ISS for the rape of each of the two girls and two indecent images charges.
A second 15-year-old was given the same sentence for three charges of rape against each of the two victims and four counts of taking indecent images in relation to filming of the incidents.
A third boy, aged 14, was given a YRO for 18 months for two charges of rape in the January incident, by encouraging the second defendant, and an offence of indecent images.
Judge Nicholas Rowland explained his sentence: “I should avoid criminalising these children unnecessarily and understand the effects of their behaviour and support their reintegration into society.”
He added that “peer pressure played a large part in what went on”.
Robert Jenrick condemned the sentences and said the perpetrators “have to go to jail”.
“The perpetrators of these acts have to go to jail, so the attorney general should consider this, and then I hope that these sentences are changed, and that these rapists are put behind bars,” Reform UK’s treasury spokesman said.
A government spokesman said the attorney general’s office had received “multiple” requests for the sentences to be reviewed under the Unduly Lenient Scheme.