Decision not to jail three UK boys for rape is ‘unusual’ and could be reviewed, says ex-attorney general

Appeal judges would be unlikely to criticise the attorney general, Richard Hermer, if he asked them to review “unusual” non-custodial sentences handed to three teenage boys convicted of raping two girls, one of his predecessors has suggested. Dominic Grieve, who also served as home secretary, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that the goal of rehabilitating offenders – particularly younger ones – needed to be balanced with providing deterrence. The two girls were raped in two separate incidents in Fordingbridge in Hampshire in November 2024 and January last year. In the first attack, a 15-year-old girl was raped by two of the defendants, both aged 14 at the time. In the second assault, the three boys threatened a 14-year-old girl with a knife and two of them raped her while the others encouraged the offending and filmed the assaults. Two 15-year-old boys were sentenced to three-year youth rehabilitation orders and made subject to intensive supervision and surveillance (ISS). The third boy, aged 14, was given an 18-month youth rehabilitation order. Asked about people finding it difficult to understand how non-custodial sentences could be imposed, Grieve said: “I fully appreciate that. The decision by the judge was certainly unusual in view of the seriousness of the offence. But these were, at the same time, juveniles – indeed, quite young. And, therefore, the judge can seek to justify his decision as to why to depart from the guidelines for sentencing. …