Former safeguarding minister Jess Phillips says rape sentencing guidelines must be reviewed with sexual offences committed by children against children spiralling and the average age of an attacker just 14.

Speaking today, she said that victims raped by children like the two Hampshire girls whose attackers controversially walked free are being asked 'to suck it up' in favour of their attackers' rehabilitation.

And the ex minister for safeguarding and violence against women and girls warned that crime 'had become content for the eyeball economy' with teens committing and filming vicious sex attacks for content.

Her comments came as it was revealed that there are at least three other recent cases where teenage boys have not been given custodial sentences for rape.

In one case a boy walked free after being convicted of three sex attacks.

Meanwhile, Attorney General Lord Hermer praised the 'bravery' of the two rape victims in Hampshire and said he had 'no doubt' in referring the sentence of their attackers to the Court of Appeal.

And in a separate development two senior Conservative politicians have written to the Justice Secretary criticising the trial judge at Southampton Crown Court for using personal information on a gang of rapists while not jailing them and taking their side over the victims.

The shadow justice secretary and shadow home secretary have written a strongly worded letter to Deputy PM and justice secretary David Lammy demanding a change in the sentencing guidelines.

Also criticising the current guidelines, which suggest juveniles should only be jailed as a last resort, Jess Phillips, who resigned from her post earlier this month in protest at Sir Keir Starmer's premiership, said they did not take into account a 'growing trend' of children sexually abusing other children.

She spoke out after widespread outrage over three teenagers, who cannot be named as they are under 18, walking free from court bound only by youth rehabilitation orders despite being convicted of the horrific attacks in Fordingbridge which they filmed.

Two girls, then aged 15 and 14, were raped in separate incidents in the town in November 2024 and January 2025, by two 14-year-old boys. Another boy, then 13, was also convicted for his involvement in the second attack.

Trial judge Nicholas Rowland said he wanted to avoid 'criminalising' the 'very young' boys and praised them for their behaviour during the trial.

The case has triggered disgust across the UK and further afield with one of the victims speaking out to say that hearing the sentence was like a 'rock in my face' while the second girl said she wanted to 'be able to go on a walk without being scared'.

French rape survivor and campaigner Gisele Pelicot even spoke up this week to praise the bravery of the two victims in coming forward and testifying.

Ms Phillips, the MP for Birmingham Yardley, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'What we are seeing over the last five years is a growing trend of children sexually abusing other children - in over 53% of child sexual abuse cases where we know the age of the perpetrator, they are perpetrated by somebody aged 10-17 with the average age of 14.

'I have to say that I don't think that the sentencing guidelines have been updated with that in mind.

'I don't think the early intervention that could be in place whether at school or through the youth justice system has kept pace with that changing trend and those things absolutely need to be looked at.'

Ms Phillips said she was concerned that too much emphasis was being placed on the needs of the perpetrator rather than focusing on the victim and 'public safety'.

'We are essentially asking the girls in Fordingbridge, and now these new cases that have been reported, to essentially suck it up for the sake of the perception of what is best for the perpetrators,' she said.

And she called for a focus on 'early intervention education programmes and youth justice programmes' as a crucial prevention measure.

'It seems - like in Fordingbridge where there were prior cases - that there are always opportunities to intervene earlier that are being missed.'

And she warned the findings of the Southport Inquiry - where a 'terrible and heinous crime' had been 'committed by a child' also reinforced this trend.

'One of the main findings of the first bit of the inquiry is that where we focus too heavily on the perpetrator and their vulnerabilities and don't think about the public safety element.'

Asked what was driving the rise in sexual offences committed by young boys, Ms Phillips said: 'I cannot ignore the growing trend in young people committing sexual abuse and making up so many of the numbers.

'I cannot ignore the growth in online pornography, access to the most heinous things online for this generation that just simply didn't exist in prior generations.

'Looking at what young people look at online, what they have available to them, I think whether crime has become content for an 'eyeball economy' because, in some of these cases, they were being filmed in order to make content.'

It also emerged that the three separate cases where youths walked free took place in the Youth Courts in north east England, according to the Guardian newspaper.

Normally youth courts are closed to the public and subject to restricted press reporting.

The cases were only highlighted because official victim advocates from the Rape and Sexual Abuse Counselling Centre (RSACC) covering Darlington and County Durham, who attended court to support the victims, spoke out because they were shocked to witness the boys walk free.

Youth court rules place a greater emphasis on rehabilitation than adult courts meaning the three cases which have come to light may only be the tip of the iceberg.

In one case, a boy aged 14 was found guilty of raping a victim aged 16 or over in August 2023, as well as sexual assault by penetration in August 2023 and the sexual assault of a girl aged 15 in February 2023.

He was sentenced in December 2025 at Teesside magistrates court and given a youth rehabilitation order and was placed on the sex offender register for 30 months.

In a second case, a boy aged 15 was convicted of a serious sexual assault against a girl aged 14 in April 2024. He was sentenced in July 2025 to a youth rehabilitation order and placed on the sex offender register for 42 months.

In a third case, a 17-year-old male was sentenced in September 2025 after being convicted of the rape of a girl aged 15. He was given a youth rehabilitation order and was put on the sex offender register for 30 months. The convicted rapist turned 18 this month.

All three were fined just £26, the surcharge on all youth defendants who receive a youth rehabilitation order.

In one of the cases where the boy avoided prison after he was found guilty of three attacks, including a rape, his victim said he should have been jailed and his punishment was not 'justice for me'.

'He is still able to live his life normally and do what he wants,' she said.

'This isn't a deterrent for others. Boys think they can do what they want so they make bad choices and take bad actions.'

She said her attacker had made a 'choice' to rape her and should be on the sex offender register for life, not 30 months.

Meanwhile, the Mail on Sunday has exclusively seen a letter written by shadow ministers Nick Timothy and Chris Philp to Mr Lammy.

They have criticised the judge for using the perpetrators' age, and the fact one had ADHD, another a low IQ and the third 'limited understanding of consent' over the rights of the victims.

The letter said: 'We write to express deep concern about the operation and appropriateness of Sentencing Council guidelines as they seem to have been applied in the recent Southampton Crown Court case to three teenagers found guilty of ten counts of rape.

'We ask you to write to the Sentencing Council urgently requesting a review of these guidelines in respect of serious, violent and sexual crimes. We also ask you to abandon plans, as laid out in the recent youth justice white paper, to make sentencing for minors and some adults even more lenient.'

They highlighted the comments the judge made about avoiding 'criminalising these children unnecessarily' and 'I have to remember you are not small adults'.

The letter added: 'The judge also referred to the diagnosis of the first defendant with ADHD and anxiety, the low IQ of the second defendant and the 'low intellectual capacity' and 'limited understanding of consent' of the third. He said 'peer pressure' played a large part in what went on.

'Section 1.2 of the Sentencing Council guidelines for sentencing children and young people stipulates that 'While the seriousness of the offence will be the starting point, the approach to sentencing should be individualistic and focused on the child or young person, as opposed to offence focused', going beyond a standard mitigation approach.

'Section 1.3 adopts a 'last resort' principle for awarding custodial sentences, even in the case of serious, violent crimes. Section 1.4 says it is important 'to avoid 'criminalising' children and young people unnecessarily; the primary purpose of the youth justice system is to encourage children and young people to take responsibility for their own actions and promote re-integration into society rather than to punish'.

'Section 1.5 lays out factors that may diminish culpability, such as emotional maturity, developmental stage and susceptibility to peer pressure.

'It is clear that when passing sentence the judge in question chose to prioritise the welfare of the perpetrators rather than the victims.

'He appealed to the age, developmental stage and mental disabilities of the defendants and his desire not to 'criminalise' to justify non- custodial sentences, despite the seriousness of the crime and the harm inflicted.'

They said the guidelines are drafted to prioritise the welfare of offenders.

They add: 'The guidelines for children and young people are clearly in need of urgent review.

'Will you call on the Sentencing Council to review its guidelines for sentencing serious and violent young offenders as a matter of urgency, and abandon the plans in the Government white paper to reduce custodial sentencing for offenders based purely on age even further?'

Meanwhile Lord Hermer told BBC Radio 4's Political Thinking with Nick Robinson: 'I was in no doubt that it was a sentence that I felt had to be referred to the Court of Appeal.'

Three of the most senior judges in England and Wales will now hear arguments about whether the sentence was too short or appropriate in a Court of Appeal hearing, taking into account detailed guidelines to trial judges and the specific circumstances of the case.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch previously posted on X that the three boys received 'no punishment at all'.

Reform UK's treasury spokesman Robert Jenrick also previously condemned the sentence, saying: 'It can never be right that a young person kills someone or rapes someone and they do not go to jail.'