Attorney General Wins Custody for Teenage Fordingbridge Rapists
Two teenage boys who raped two girls and filmed the attacks in Fordingbridge will now serve four years’ detention, after the Attorney General referred their original non-custodial sentences to the Court of Appeal under the unduly lenient sentence scheme. The original sentences had caused a national outcry. The mother of one victim said the new terms were “better” but still “not enough”.
The reversal is a significant use of the unduly lenient sentence scheme in youth sentencing, where courts weigh rehabilitation heavily and custody is rare — which is precisely why the original outcome ignited the reaction it did. The case now sits inside a wider argument about sentencing for serious sexual offending by minors, sharpened this week by the NCA’s exposure of an international drug-facilitated rape network. For the families involved, the scheme delivered a remedy the original hearing did not. Watch whether the case is cited as sentencing policy comes under review by the incoming government.