Three boys in Hampshire, England, have been convicted of assaulting two girls, with a teenage rape victim criticizing a court’s decision to free them from prison.The victim, now 16, spoke to the BBC after Southampton Crown Court handed the defendant a youth rehabilitation order instead of a custodial sentence.“What’s the point of putting me through this?” she said.The 15-year-old girl was raped in an underpass near the River Avon in Fordingbridge in November 2024 when she went to meet one of the boys after speaking to them on Snapchat.Two boys, now 15, were convicted of the January 2025 attack and a separate rape involving another teenage girl. A third defendant, now 14, was also convicted for his role in the second attack.The court heard the attacks were filmed on mobile phones and some videos were later circulated online.The two older boys received three-year Youth Rehabilitation Orders with strict supervision and monitoring requirements, while the youngest defendant received an 18-month Youth Rehabilitation Order.Sentencing, Judge Nicholas Rowland said he wanted to avoid “convicting” the “very young” defendant, although he acknowledged the seriousness of the offenses and said filming the attack would make them “even more serious”.The judge also said peer pressure played a “large part” in the incidents.The victim reacted to the ruling, saying the decision was “like a stone hitting me directly in the face”.“It almost makes it seem like the boys were not behaving in a good way, but from a legal perspective it was OK because they were still children,” she said.The teenager also described the emotional strain of reliving the attack during court proceedings.“Why would I sit down and put myself through the pain of going to court, going to trial, reliving everything because of the evidence and watching it happen again?” she said.She said she waited six months to report the attack because she had difficulty coping with the trauma.“I’m saying this because I’m losing it. I’m spiraling. I need help and I don’t know how to get it, so I’m speaking out,” she said.Her family also criticized the sentencing, saying the punishment was insufficient.The girl’s mother called on authorities to reconsider the case and urged the government to intervene.“Please help,” she said.“If it was your daughter, your niece, your son, your nephew, your family, would you be happy?”Her partner said he felt “physically ill” after hearing the verdict and claimed the perpetrators were “walking free”.
