Three teenage boys have avoided jail despite being convicted of raping two schoolgirls in a New Forest town. The case was heard at Southampton Crown Court, where the court learned that the attacks occurred in separate incidents in Fordingbridge, Hampshire. The first incident took place on November 26, 2024, and the second on January 17, 2025.
Sentences handed down
A 15-year-old boy was given a three-year youth rehabilitation order, which includes 180 days of intensive supervision and surveillance, after admitting to raping both girls and possessing indecent images. The court was informed that he suffers from ADHD and long-standing anxiety.
Another 15-year-old received an identical sentence for three counts of rape against each victim, as well as four charges of taking indecent images after filming the assaults. The court heard that he has an IQ in the "bottom 1% of his contemporaries" and has been diagnosed with ADHD.
A third boy, aged 14, was given an 18-month youth rehabilitation order for two charges of rape in the January incident, by encouraging the second defendant, and an offence of indecent images. He was described as having "mild cognitive impairment."
Judge's remarks
Judge Nicholas Rowland told the defendants: "I have to remember that you are not small adults. I have to think how likely you are to do serious things again and I need to make sure you do not do serious things again in the future."
Explaining his sentence, he added: "I should avoid criminalising these children unnecessarily and understand the effects of their behaviour and support their reintegration into society." He also noted that "peer pressure played a large part in what went on."
Victim impact statements
The victim of the first incident attended the sentencing hearing and, screened from the view of the boys, read her victim impact statement as well as a poem she had written directed towards her attackers. She described how her mental health had deteriorated since the incident, leading her to isolate herself from her friends. "I was caught off-guard, I never want that to happen again, I will never get that innocence back again," she said.
The poem included the line: "All I want to do is die, I no longer have fear for when that comes." She added: "No-one deserves the trauma of being raped."
In a statement read on behalf of the second victim, she said her school attendance had suffered and added: "I often feel overwhelmed, anxious and emotionally exhausted to the point where sitting in a classroom becomes unbearable." She described suffering nightmares and struggling to sleep and added: "I feel ashamed, insecure and uncomfortable in my own body." She added: "The person I was before the incident has completely gone and sometimes I feel like I am grieving the person I used to be."
Judge praises victims
The judge praised the bravery of the two girls for providing their statements and giving evidence and said to the first victim: "I hope when you look back on today's date you will take some comfort from the fact you have shown that courage in coming along to court. You and (the second girl) have shown great courage in coming along to the trial and speaking as you did."
He added: "The sentence I am going to pass cannot possibly undo what happened to you."
Additional orders
The boys were also made subject to a three-month curfew and given a restraining order for 10 years not to contact their victims.
Prosecution details
Jodie Mittel KC, prosecuting, told the trial that the girl in the November incident, who was 15 at the time, had visited the first defendant 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 joined them with a third boy who was not charged. Ms Mittel said that the girl felt "cornered and trapped" and "petrified" as the two defendants raped her while the incident was filmed.
Ms Mittel said that afterwards, videos of the incident had been sent around and other people made jokes about her and 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 to Fordingbridge recreation ground while the incident was also filmed.
