Detention the 'only appropriate sentence' for boys spared custody over rape, court hears

Detention was the "only appropriate sentence" for three teenage boys spared custody over the rape of two girls, the Court of Appeal has heard.

Two 15-year-old boys, known as X and Y, were given youth rehabilitation orders (YRO) and put on a supervision and surveillance programme by a judge in May, over the rape of two girls in separate attacks in Fordingbridge, Hampshire in November 2024 and January 2025.

A third boy, 14, and known as Z, was also given a YRO for encouraging one of the attackers - and for an indecent images offence - over the January attack.

Sentencing them at Southampton Crown Court, Judge Nicholas Rowland said the offences of the two 15-year-olds "crossed the custody threshold", but he should "avoid criminalising these children unnecessarily" and added that detention was a "last resort".

The sentences were referred to the Court of Appeal as "unduly lenient" by Attorney General Lord Hermer days later.

Judge Rowland said at sentencing that although X and Y were assessed by Youth Justice Services as "medium risk" of reoffending but "high risk of serious harm" to young females, he had to consider their backgrounds.

He said X had been diagnosed with ADHD and "long-standing anxiety" while Y had an IQ in the bottom 1%, had ADHD with "extreme neurodevelopmental impairment" and presented "more like an eight-year-old".

Tom Little KC, for the Attorney General, said: "We accept… that the judge did try to apply the relevant principles, but our submission is he misapplied them along the way, the cumulative effect of which was to lead to unduly lenient sentences."

He continued: "It is difficult to understand how the judge could properly have come to the conclusion that he did, given the sheer number of rape offences, which the judge does not properly address in any way in… his sentencing remarks, the underlying seriousness of the offending and the harm sustained."

Mr Little acknowledged in court that Z was "plainly in a different position" from X and Y due to his younger age and only being involved with one of the rapes, but that his offending was "sustained".

In written submissions, he continued: "In summary it is submitted that the extent and nature of the offending was so serious such that the only appropriate sentence for X, Y and Z was detention."

Clare Wade KC, for X, said that Judge Rowland "approached the sentencing exercise correctly".

She said: "The sentences imposed broadly provide the best opportunity for the child offenders to learn and develop and provide the most effective way of protecting women and girls in future by preventing future offending."

Edward Henry KC, for Y, told the court that his client "behaved deplorably and disgracefully and deserves to be punished", but had been made a "pariah" in the wake of public outcry following his sentencing, which caused the boy "substantial additional punishment that he is ill-equipped to bear".

Mr Henry said that in referring to Y's sentence as "unduly lenient", the Attorney General "has not engaged with the compelling evidence that the child whom I represent has a constellation of comorbid conditions that dramatically reduced his culpability".

In a statement ahead of the hearing, one of the victims said the attack on her "has left me harmed so severely that I do not think I will ever be the same" and that the trial of her attackers "broke something inside me".

The hearing, before the Lady Chief Justice Baroness Carr, Lord Justice Edis and Ms Justice Norton, is set to conclude on Thursday.

(c) Sky News 2026: Detention the 'only appropriate sentence' for boys spared custody over rape, court hears