A review has been launched into "lenient" sentences given to three boys who avoided prison for their parts in the rape of two girls.
The trial at Southampton Crown Court heard two girls were raped in two separate incidents in Fordingbridge, Hampshire, the first attack on November 26, 2024 and the second on January 17, 2025.
The three boys, two aged 15 and one aged 14, were given youth rehabilitation orders (YRO), with the older pair also made subject to intensive supervision and surveillance (ISS).
Now, former Home Office minister and Birmingham Yardley Labour MP Jess Phillips has criticised the sentence given to the youths, who avoided custodial sentences, as sending a “bad message".
Ms Phillips said: "It seems unduly lenient to me and has wider public interest beyond just the case itself in the message that it sends.
"For those young women, going through a rape trial like this will not have been a simple thing to do, it will have been many, many months, if not years, to achieve any sort of justice, and I am afraid to say it sends a bad message.
"These young people, it seems, were essentially raping for content in order to put it on social media and share it to their friends, gloating about raping these poor young women."
A Conservative Party spokesman confirmed Shadow Justice Minister Dr Kieran Mullan MP and Shadow Minister for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls Alicia Kearns MP have referred the sentences to the Attorney General under the Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme.
Hampshire Police and Crime Commissioner Donna Jones has offered to support the families of the victims if they wish to appeal against the "leniency" of the sentences.
She said: "This is an extremely disturbing case. I’m deeply concerned these boys felt they could carry out such terrifying acts and share them online and not go to prison. Their sentences reflect a clear focus on rehabilitation rather than criminalisation. They are far too lenient.
"As they stand, they offer little comfort to their victims as they try to rebuild their lives after such harrowing experiences.
"The education of young people about sexual violence and misogynistic attitudes is vitally important if we’re to prevent crimes like this from happening again."
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A Government spokesman said the attorney general’s office had received "multiple" requests for the sentences to be reviewed under the Unduly Lenient Scheme.
He said: "We share the public’s shock at the details of this horrific case, and our thoughts are with the young victims during this distressing time.
"The law officers are urgently reviewing the case with the utmost care and attention."
In the sentencing hearing on Thursday, a 15-year-old boy was handed a three-year YRO with 180 days of ISS for the rape of each of the two girls and two indecent images charges.
The court heard he had been diagnosed with ADHD as well as "long-standing anxiety".
A second 15-year-old was given the same sentence for three charges of rape against each of the two victims and four counts of taking indecent images in relation to filming of the incidents.
The court was told he had an IQ of the “bottom 1% of his contemporaries” and had been diagnosed with ADHD.
The third boy, 14, was given a YRO for 18 months for two charges of rape in the January incident by encouraging the second defendant and an offence of indecent images. He was described as having “mild cognitive impairment”.
Judge Nicholas Rowland told the defendants: "I have to remember that you are not small adults. I have to think how likely you are to do serious things again and I need to make sure you do not do serious things again in the future."
Explaining his sentence, he added: "I should avoid criminalising these children unnecessarily and understand the effects of their behaviour and support their reintegration into society."
He added that "peer pressure played a large part in what went on".
The judge praised the "bravery" of the two victims for giving evidence to the trial and for providing statements on how the offences had affected them.
Jodie Mittel KC, prosecuting, told the trial the girl in the November incident, who was 15 at the time, had visited the first defendant after meeting him on Snapchat.
The prosecutor said that after performing sex acts on the boy, who was then 14, she became "scared and anxious" when the second defendant arrived, and the pair raped her while the incident was filmed.
Ms Mittel said that afterwards, videos of the incident had been sent around and other people made jokes about her, and she received messages calling her a "slag".
The complainant in the January incident, who was 14 at the time, was raped in a field near to Fordingbridge recreation ground while the incident was also filmed.
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