Rape case - distressing content - have they got away with it?

[Ohcrap082024]

BBC news report

Hopefully this link works but I really wish it wasn’t necessary to post this.

Two teenage girls, separately raped by a group of boys. Premeditated. Filmed. Convicted. And still the rapists get to go home with a non custodial sentence. I’m disgusted but not shocked.

Those poor girls. Reporting what happened and giving evidence. Yes, they were believed. But the sentences are woeful.

So WHAT if they have ADHD!!! Millions of people do. They’re not all out raping young girls ffs. I am literally fucking fuming here 😡

Attorney general to review Fordingbridge teen boys' rape sentences - BBC News 🙂

What sort of message does this send out to others? Rape is fine? Outrageous. The judge should have a long, hard look at themselves & the public opinion on this. Hopefully the punishment will change.

ADHD is not an excuse - I have it, severely - I do not harm people. ADHD is associated with impulsivity, not premeditated gang rape. Fucks sake. The precedence setting alone is mind blowing. The judge is a horror, I can hardly believe it.

I hope PP’s point was that a recent diagnosis suggests it’s for the court. Not genuine.

There was no form for me to submit when I went there. It had been removed from the site.

Which seems a stupid thing for them to do. If someone wanted to submit the form about a different sentence in a different case they have been blocked from doing so because of the interest in this case.

I’m wondering if people aren’t reading through the full tagged posts

A pp said part of the blame was on the Government / nhs etc ( I’m not paraphrasing ) for not dealing with their mental health issues

I pointed out two had only recently been diagnosed with ADHD

I think its quite obvious as I tagged the pp that I was saying you can’t blame the nhs / Govn etc etc when a diagnosis has only just been made.

I don’t think people are reading the thread. Not all posts stand in isolation

Oh sorry
Yes
I should have confirmed

The papers sort of suggested the diagnosis were very recent, ie since the rapes.

No I didn’t suggest they weren’t genuine
Because that would make a mockery of the diagnostic system

I cannot believe what I just read. I am so sorry for the impact this must have on you as a family, and especially your poor daughter. What a disgusting outcome. It's just compounding the awful crime.

And yet there are plenty of women in prison whose children have had to be taken into care or looked after by family for not paying fines or shoplifting. The justice system is utterly broken.

This government seem determined not to criminalise criminals.

Getting rid of some jury trials.

Organising fast track courts for some people (whose views they dislike) but not for rapists.

Early releases.

Looking to Increase the age of criminal responsibility.

You all may be able to think of more. Greens would be no better and conservatives were appalling and despite Kemi acting tough on crime her Conservative MPs are still the same (in the main) as before.

Which party is going to sort out crime? And I believe the first step should be deporting all foreign criminals to free up prison space and reduce crime generally (yes I think all foreign criminals need to go even if not in prison). Just like I think if I chose to carry out a crime in France (say a mugging or burglary) I should be arrested, charged, prison if that is their rule, deported and a lifetime ban from France). It’s not unreasonable.

A very small percentage (1%) are responsible for over 60% of violent crime. Deportation threat will make other would be criminals change their mind and behave. Freeing up prisons means we can lock up those that we (sadly) can’t deport.

After this case (and the Afghan sex ring reported yesterday) that is my number one voting issue. I discussed this with a group of ladies yesterday and they agreed. We are all normal professional women fed up of this type of nonsense. If wanting rapists to be locked up and every foreign person with a criminal record deporting makes me a meany - so what! Girls and women matter to me more.

CCTV and video footage makes no difference. No doubt Labour will say we need more cameras, we need more cctv - no we don’t. We need the 1% locking up because even when they are identified they are not locked up (that Manchester case of the man punch in the female officer - jury couldn’t decide - wtf - it’s on camera!

I am guessing the new ADHD diagnosis (remarkably convenient) and the evidence of La l if control will mean these boys are now getting benefits paid by the tax payer.

The country is a mess. People being fast tracked jailed for tweets but not gang raping kids at knife point. Fucking insane.

Any links to political parties crime policy would be greatly appreciated as that’s now on my agenda.

In my book the boys should receive a custodial sentence and the parents should also be prosecuted. Seems like the judge is scared of offending the traveller community!

Those poor girls and those poor other girls who will be attacked by teens who expect no consequences. I complained.

I honestly couldn’t believe it either. The safety of women and girls in this country is not a priority & I can’t be convinced otherwise.

not that it really matters but for context, he was 47, had a relatively new partner of the same age and lived with her 18 year old child. He has 5 children of his own but none live with him and all but one are adults - so breadwinner was vastly overstated in my opinion.

This is absolutely shocking! What sort of message does this send young people. Those poor girls and their families.
Great to have seen this injustice shared on social media too. We have to make our voices heard!

Sadly it’s not shocking. It’s disgusting but the rights of criminals are put above the rights of law abiding citizens in 2026. If they could have hidden this sentence from the public i am sure they would have. Pesky plebs wanting to lock up poor boys.

But I’m sure the judge is seen by his peers a a progressive and wonderful human being.

It has been reported that the boys are from the traveller community so it’s more likely they can’t read because of lack of education rather than a learning disability.
It could also explain where the misogyny comes from.
Good luck to anyone trying to rehabilitate them !

The more I know and think about this case, the more I believe that the judge has failed all the young people involved in it.

He absolutely failed in his duty towards delivering justice for the 2 girls. I have no doubt in my mind about that.

But, the judge has also failed in his duty towards the 3 boys. He has returned them to the very families and community which allowed these behaviours to fester. With no guarantee that the boys and their families will engage with any form of community rehabilitation.

These boys are under curfew for a short 3 months. They can continue to
socialise together. Continue along the path on which they find themselves.

The leniency of their sentences and the judge’s comments will have given the boys and their families the message that what they did wasn’t that bad. A significant custodial sentence would have given the opposite message. The judge had an opportunity to ensure that the boys learnt the gravity of their crimes. He failed.

If those boys reoffend in the future, it will because they choose to. But a significant factor will be that they once had a judge who let them off after a jury had convicted them of multiple rapes.

They offended twice, yet the judge let them walk free. Without a prison sentence, they are practically guaranteed to do it again. It is infuriating to watch our justice system be hijacked by woke, liberal, lefty judges who hand down such weak, pathetic sentences. Just recently on LBC, a female judge was actually talking about criminals as if they were the real victims, blaming their actions on 'circumstances,' 'mental health,' or 'upbringing.' Personal responsibility wasn't even mentioned. Millions of people endure tough upbringings and difficult lives without resorting to crime or hurting others. It’s time these judges stopped making excuses.

I am really pro rehabilitation and I’m also fairly against the criminalisation of children but these sentences seem incredibly short and limited. Even the ban from contacting victims is way too short. 10years is nothing really. There should be a life time ban on contacting their victims.
Am I understanding correctly that there is not even a suspended sentence? Which at least would mean they could be recalled to prison if they don’t keep to the rules.
I don’t see rehabilitation actually happening here… are they being required to do some sort of forensic therapy? It just all seems very insufficient even if your whole aim was rehabilitation. And I do see the need for justice as well.

They should at the least have inpatient therapy and any violations on the terms of their release after that mean being recalled to prison.

I don't understand this - the families don't have a right of appeal.

I know that the girls will never see our posts. But I just hope that in some small way, they could know that there are many, many people who believe them and can see that they have been treated appallingly.

There is no issue around belief - the boys have been convicted. I would assume everyone believes the girls.

There have been other cases like this where young adult men ( so not children) are given light sentences by male judges who don’t want to ruin these young men’s lives.

This shows an underlying belief of these Judges that rape and assault of women is ‘not that bad’ and male lives are more important than female lives.

I suspect violent pornography was a factor in those boys, who are still children themselves, committing these crimes. Why we as a society allow such pornography is beyond me. But yet even on this predominantly female site we see normalisation of pornography.

I challenge this idea that it’s focused on rehabilitation. I don’t think it is at all. That would mean intensive, live in therapeutic work. Not heading home with a three month curfew… that is not rehabilitation at all.

Yes. He’s the judge whose surname starts with an N and who criminals pray they will get when their court date comes up. And we can’t do a thing to get him removed!

I know of a bloke who was convicted for rape , got 5 years and served 2.5 years in prison. On a night out he bumped in to a girl he worked with, they were all drunk, during the night she pulled him into the ladies toilets in the pub and they had sex (there is cctv footage of her literally pulling him in to the toilets that was not allowed to be shown to the jury), they then walked arm in arm to the taxi rank (cctv footage again) got a taxi back to his house. Taxi driver gave evidence that girl was all over the guy in his cab but was not allowed to be heard by jury. They had sex again back at his house. Girl woke up in the morning, left and went to a phone box and phoned the police to say she had been raped. Now I get that just because she had initiated sex earlier in the evening doesn’t mean she consented later but the sentencing for rape cases seems to be wildly irregular. There was no hard evidence against this bloke, it was literally her word against his and I have no idea how on earth that jury managed to find him guilty. (I attended the court to support a friend so heard all the evidence). On the other hand I was unfortunate enough to be on jury duty for a rape case and I was convinced the guy was guilty but the case ended up being ‘unproven’ because the majority of the jury didn’t think there was enough evidence, it was only her word against his, no witnesses. And it was 3 not guilty, 5 not proven and 7 guilty. The justice system is woefully unfair