Court of appeal to review decision to spare teen rapists who avoided jail

Keir Starmer has announced that the court of appeal will review the non-custodial sentences given to three teenage boys who raped two girls in Hampshire. There were two separate attacks in November 2024 and January 2025. In the first, two of the defendants raped a 15-year-old girl. In the second, the boys threatened a 14-year-old girl with a knife while two of them raped her and others filmed on their phones. Some of the footage was later shared online. Last week a judge spared the defendants from prison, citing their mental health conditions and saying that he wanted to avoid “unnecessarily” criminalising them. The decision has caused outrage. One of the girls attacked told the BBC it was like a “rock straight in my face”. Only 3% of rape cases reported to the police in England and Wales result in a charge within a year.