Sentences of teenage rapists who avoided jail referred to Court of Appeal
https://news.sky.com/story/sentences-of-teenage-rapists-who-avoided-jail-referred-to-court-of-appeal-13548062
Posted by bendubberley_
Sentences of teenage rapists who avoided jail referred to Court of Appeal
https://news.sky.com/story/sentences-of-teenage-rapists-who-avoided-jail-referred-to-court-of-appeal-13548062
Posted by bendubberley_
28 Comments
i hope the initial judge receives some sort of sanction, there’s an extent to which you can give some leniency in justice, this isn’t one of them.
it’s purely letting them off and taking the piss out of the justice system and families.
he or she has been trusted in their position of power to provide an orderly punishment in protecting society, they’ve failed to do that.
Maybe im old but if you are convicted of rape you should go to prison. No ifs or buts.
Good. The sentence was a disgrace and the same extends to the judge.
Biggest miscarriage of justice in recent memory. Judge needs to lose their job for this.
Too often, judges are not imprisoning serious sexual offenders.
I believe that all the judges responsible for the leniency, should be investigated to discover if they are fit people to have the responsibility
This is excellent news, let’s hope the next judge isn’t so terrible! Those boys need suitable punishments as what they did was absolutely vile. The last judge made a mockery of the victims and their families.
Well obviously. And theres a very good chance they’ll be jailed. But it won’t be for anything like as long as people here want, given their ages at the time. People want revenge, but the law doesn’t work that way.
Do the mind-blowing sentences have anything to do with the fact UK prisons are severely overcrowded and are operating critically close to maximum capacity??
Hopefully the victim now gets the justice they deserve. If it was up to me these rapists would never see the light of day again. They’ve inflicted a life sentence on the victim. They should have their freedom permanently taken away too.
When I was 15 I absolutely knew right from wrong. And what happened in this case is very, very wrong.
Two sets of criminals here, the teenagers and the judge.
Now can we do the same for Jeffrey Donaldson’s wife?
Will obviously be appealed and overturned with a more appropriate sentence, and that judge should be taken off adjudication of crimes like that
One thing I don’t understand with these sorts of crimes, is the government surely knows how the public feels. I feel being harsher on these sorts of crimes in general seems like such an easy win to enforce, literally nobody will be going out of their way to defend violent rapists, why not try and push for tougher sentences on these crimes.
The judge needs to be questioned heavily on how they thought this was any sort of logical sentence.
A rise in violence against women and girls and what message does this send out? I hope the judge and the rapists go to hell.
I’m glad they’re looking into it, it shows the public can still have some effect on these things if enough people make themselves heard.
The entire sentencing guidelines need to be reviewed, especially when a successful rape prosecution is so rare in the first place. This one was egregiously lenient but every day you hear more similar cases where someone ruins a life and gets an insultingly low punishment.
it seems the courts have not learnt from jon venables. he committed horrific acts as a child, the courts went lenient on him *because* he was a child and he has continued to reoffend in his adult life.
i believe there are so many crimes that *can* be rehabilitated, even just a little bit. but sexual criminals cannot in most cases, especially when those crimes start so young. and, in fact, because they got punished so leniently, it gives them more confidence in committing similar crimes in the future and as adults.
Words of wisdom will be used but no action taken.
Each and every day we will learn justice doesn’t prevail anymore.
When the innocents aren’t protected it’s time for change.
If the two boys were migrants there would be riots over this. Judge should lose his job
A rapist should never avoid prison. The fact they started raping people at a young age is a concern, not a mitigating factor.
Trouble is we are dealing with the travelling community. These kids will disappear.
Holding somebody at knife point should result in a prison sentence, and thats before we even get into the fact two people were raped!
I was wondering if anyone was going to defend that sentence or the judge.
I can’t defend the sentence and it is rightly being review as it has outraged the public.
Before we pillory the judge we do need to ensure that he has not followed the sentencing guidance correctly, if he has they need to be changed.
However I could see his other recent decisions, it is possible that he doesn’t believe youth offender institutions are ever effective (he could be right about that) and he might never use them. But if repeated rape of another child with the aggravating factor of a knife and filming with distribution of child tornadoes not count among the most serious offences then I struggle to understand what would.
A shame they ever had to be, the judge in question should be asked some serious questions about his suitability for the role.
I thought knife crimes had a 5 year minimum sentence, even if you ignore the rape and child pornography
When are we going to see rapists actually get the punishment they deserve in the courts instead of all this pussyfooting around and defending the feelings of the perpetrators than the actual victims. We are seeing this again and again in all rape cases being against the young girls who were groomed and blamed and women and young girls who’s trauma is overrided for the benefit of the perpetrators.
Good luck finding these kids again. They’ll be long gone.
The judge, HHJ Nicholas Rowland, has form for this. In August 2025 at Southampton CC he sentenced a rapist to 3 years + 9 months. The solicitor general referred the case (R v Blachford) to the court of appeal as unduly lenient. The appeal court agreed that it was – but didn’t increase it.