Teenage boy receives referral order after stabbing girl who rejected him

Well. It's a deterrent and it may remove him from whatever situation has caused or encouraged him to stab a girl who rejects him. So may be worthwhile anyway.

It absolutely should be but it isn't. Once they're in detention - you effectively surround them with other criminals and as a group they become resistant to the support offered. Sadly we don't have an appropriate prison system in this country that works towards rehabilitation. It's basically just deprivation of liberty and the odd literacy or numeracy course. Kennelling for dangerous people if you will.

It's been chronically underfunded for years. There was a case I knew about a few years ago where the probation officer had tried to claim he was unaware the offender (a violent armed robber) he was meant to be monitoring had moved out of the home he was allegedly living in (his mother's one bedroom council flat), had moved in with a new woman and gained access to her children. The man was arrested repeatedly for domestic violence but because he lived in one LA area, was arrested by the police of another one, and under the probation services of another - it went under the radar. There was no joined up thinking and phone calls were replacing meetings and spot checks just don't happen. The entire system is buckling and we have 18 months wait sometime for justice - at which point some cases cannot be prosecuted. They've blamed covid but actually there's just been a complete betrayal of our justice system - and associated services. Then more people leave, fewer people have to take on more work and shit like this happens.

I agree the victim's right to be safe should be paramount.

Should be possible for him to get support and therapy etc while detained, so it doesn't really seem to be an either/or situation.

Yes, I can see it's a constructive approach for some things, but as you say, surely the violence here means it's not appropriate.

Geezo.

'In April 2025 we published our National Inspection of Probation Services, a report designed to give a comprehensive picture of the national arrangements that enable or hinder effective probation delivery. That inspection’s findings were sobering. We identified major shortfalls in national arrangements to support service delivery and keep people safe, with an overall rating of ‘Requires improvement’. Public protection emerged as a persistent and serious area of weakness, a finding that was to define much of our work for the rest of the year and across our strategic plans moving forward.
Our inspection programme across regions and probation delivery units (PDUs) told a similarly concerning story. Inspections in the North East, the East Midlands, and Wales all identified public protection as a consistent area of weakness. Every PDU inspected was rated either ‘Inadequate’ or ‘Requires improvement’.'

However, wrt youth services it seems more positive:

' we continued to see strong results across the sector. In general, stable workforces, manageable workloads, and high-quality staff supervision were contributing to a youth justice system that helped to have a positive impact on the lives of children under the supervision of youth justice services (YJS).'

https://hmiprobation.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/document/annual-report-2026/#5-Youthjusticeserviceinspections

They're quite targeted. It's effectively a way to prioritise levels of support, therapy etc that are otherwise not there. They work quite well on things like anti-social behaviour/repeated shoplifting when the reasons behind the offending can be addressed with intensive support. With this though - it's not appropriate. The victim's right to be safe is more important than the offender staying out of a facility.

'the Probation Service has too few staff, with too little experience, managing too many cases. '

Not really very reassuring.

It comes under probation services.

'https://hmiprobation.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/document/annual-report-2026/

'...our inspections have chronicled an organisation grappling with serious systemic challenges, an increasingly large and complex caseload, and continuous change. In the latest year for which figures are available we saw increasing numbers being released from prison, an increasing probation caseload, and an increasing proportion of the caseload being managed in the community..

Yes. I hope she is given lots of quality support and is able to recover fully.

It still sounds a bit like:

So, you don't react well to girls turning you down?
No
Well will you promise not to stab them if they do?
Suppose so
Right, sign here.

This is terrifying. The poor girl.

Also done.

WTAF is wrong with this spineless govt?

https://yjlc.uk/resources/legal-updates/referral-orders-most-effective-sentence-reducing-re-offending

'An HM Inspectorate of Probation report says Referral Orders are consistently more effective than other sentences in achieving their aims of reducing offending, however improvements could be made to make them more effective.
Details

• *The report provides a comprehensive summary of the effectiveness of Referral Orders in achieving their primary aim: to prevent young people reoffending and providing a restorative justice approach to achieve this. The report states that in the year to March 2015 12,039 Referral Orders were given to young people in England and Wales compared with 10,653 youth rehabilitation orders, 2,387 custodial sentences and 229 other sentences such as reparation orders. Additionally the report found that published re-offending rates were consistently better for Referral Orders than Youth Rehabilitation Orders and other custodial sentences: ‘In the 2013/2014 cohort of cases, the latest data available at the time of writing, the reoffending rate within 12 months was 39.4%, compared to 64.5% for those subject to YRO’'

Unfortunately the report doesn't seem to be listed on the gov website anymore, but this article has some stats.

That's appalling, the poor victim.

Thanks, I see they involve a panel for youth offenders, but there's not masses of info on what that might involve. I imagine it varies depending on the crime and context.

It would be helpful to know more about what the referral order might involve.

For a serious crime like this, committed so young, one would hope there would be serious and intensive efforts to try to stop it from happening again.

It would be good to know that it might be possible to stop boys from going on to become violent men. But we need to know what that actually involves and how successful it is or isn't.

Referral order:

https://sentencingcouncil.org.uk/pronouncement-builder/referral-order/

'You will meet a panel of people who are there to help you. You will be able to talk with them about yourself and your offending ............ [give details].
They will then ask you to agree and sign a contract that will include activities to stop you offending again.'

They're sort of community justice type things - aimed at treating the cause of the offending and a sort of community justice rather than imprisonment. Hard to see why it was appropriate in this case.

I put my DD (and DS actually) in self defence classes at 13 - precisely because of behaviour like this. It is absolutely terrifying. One of her classmates had been sexually assaulted (outside of school) but then physically assaulted inside of school by the boy's sister after the fact. Neither were suspended let alone excluded but the victim was the one who had to leave because no one kept her safe. No police action and the school went out of its way to 'clarify rumours'. I do suppose their hands were tied but it's blindingly obvious what happened.

What is a referral order, can anyone elucidate?

Thanks for posting this link - I have submitted the form, even though I’m not sure if it is one of the crimes that can be reconsidered.

I would hope that this gets the same amount of media attention as the previous rape case (where the three boys initially didn’t get a serious sentence), and that prompts a review of the sentencing. It’s made me so angry that such a serious crime has been dismissed in this way.

Ah, but I'm sure they'd make sure to sentence you to the maximum sentence possible - isn't that always the way of things?

It's infuriating. Frankly, if he's capable of something like that at 14, there's not much reason in keeping him around in the hopes he'll change. He'll most likely spend the rest of his life hurting women and children, whether it's 'low-level' emotional abuse and intimidation that flies under the radar, or more outright violence that sees him caught up in the justice system again, inflicting misery on those he's supposed to love.

There's just no point to him, is there?

I was also going to suggest the OP raising it with the MP for the area. It’s an appalling message to give to victims of these violent men and boys.

Looking at the list the crimes he was charged with dont seem to be ones where the sentence can be reviewed. I still think it's worth putting in a complaint and if told the sentence cant be reviewed then taking it up with your MP and the useless misogyny taskforce. Lets at least expose the hypocrisy.