Victims of sexual offences denied justice for sake of child perpetrators, says Jess Phillips

The former safeguarding minister Jess Phillips has said victims of sexual offences committed by children are being asked to “suck it up” for the sake of their attackers’ rehabilitation and called for a review into sentencing guidelines. In the past month, cases of teenage boys given lenient sentences after being convicted of rape and sexual assault have provoked public outrage. In Fordingbridge, Hampshire three boys were given youth rehabilitation orders after two were convicted of rape and one was convicted of involvement in the attacks on two girls aged 15 and 14. A sentencing judge at Southampton crown court said he wanted to “avoid criminalising these children unnecessarily”. On Friday, the Guardian revealed three separate teenage boys convicted of the rape and serious sexual assault of girls as young as 14 in the north-east of England were handed youth rehabilitation orders and ordered to pay court fees of £26, a surcharge imposed on all youth defendants who receive such orders. Referring to both cases, Phillips, who resigned from the government last month, said it amounted to the victims being asked to “essentially suck it up for the sake of the perception of what is best for the perpetrators”. Phillips also said sentencing guidelines did not take into account a “growing trend” of children sexually abusing other children. …