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Teenage rapists are routinely escaping custodial sentences, statistics reveal.
Sentencing data shows that in the past five years nearly three out of every four under-18s convicted of rape avoided immediate custody – with the remainder given some form of community punishment.
The Ministry of Justice figures suggest the teenage traveller gang spared jail last week over the rape of two girls is far from an isolated case, despite the national uproar.
The Hampshire case provoked a political storm after two 15-year-old boys and a 14-year-old were spared detention despite being convicted of raping two girls aged 14 and 15 in separate attacks.
Judge Nicholas Rowland told Southampton Crown Court he wanted to 'avoid criminalising these children unnecessarily' and 'support their reintegration into society'.
The two older boys were given three-year rehabilitation orders with intensive supervision and surveillance. The other was handed an 18-month rehabilitation order.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer branded it 'appalling'. The sentences of the boys will be referred to the Court of Appeal.
Between 2021 and 2025 a total of 284 children aged between ten and 17 were sentenced for rape offences. Of those, just 81 were jailed immediately, the Ministry of Justice figures show.
Sentencing data shows that in the past five years nearly three out of every four under-18s convicted of rape avoided immediate custody (file image)
It means 203 convicted child rapists avoided immediate custody altogether.
In 2025 alone 70 child rape offenders were sentenced, but only 17 received immediate detention, with 53 dealt with in the community.
Among children aged 12 to 14, 30 were convicted of rape offences in 2021-2025 – but only one received immediate custody. The rest were given community punishments.
Even those who were locked up received average sentences of only five years in prison, meaning most of them could be free to walk the streets having served just half their jail term.
Last week's case centred on two boys, then aged 14, targeting a 15-year-old on Snapchat in November 2024, luring her to an underpass where they filmed themselves attacking her.
Two months later, when joined by another boy then aged 13, they gang-raped a second girl, 14, at knifepoint while again recording the attack.
Last night the second girl told The Times she feels as though she is the one being 'punished' and is now too terrified to leave her home.
She said she simply wanted to go out with her friends again and rebuild her life without the constant fear of seeing her abusers.
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