Three teenage boys who raped two lone girls in separate attacks have been sentenced.
Prosecutors said the assaults in Fordingbridge, Hampshire, in 2024 and 2025, were "brazenly filmed" on mobile phones, with footage showing the boys laughing and verbally encouraging each other.
Two of the boys were 14 when they carried out their attacks, and the third boy was 13 when he aided and abetted the assaults on the second girl.
Among other sanctions, the boys were given Youth Rehabilitation Orders and walked out of Southampton Crown Court with 11 rape convictions between them; most for physical rapes and the remainder for encouraging and filming the attacks.
Explaining his sentence, Judge Nicholas Rowland said: "I should avoid criminalising these children unnecessarily and understand the effects of their behaviour and support their reintegration into society."
The judge did stress the "seriousness" of the boys crimes and said their filming of the attacks made them even "more serious".
He then emphasised their "very young" ages and said: "None of you need to go to prison today."
Two of the boys' mothers burst into tears.
Reacting to the sentences, Hampshire Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) Donna Jones said: "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."
Warning: This story contains details some may find distressing
The victim of the first attack was 15 when she was raped three times in an underpass by the River Avon in Fordingbridge, during what she had thought was a first date.
She had travelled to meet one of the boys for the first time, after he had begun a "relationship" with her on social media platform Snapchat.
But then two other boys appeared.
During the trial the court heard she was "petrified", felt "cornered and trapped" and feared being thrown into the river.
The boys shared video of the attacks on social media, resulting in her receiving abusive messages, prosecutors said.
During the sentencing hearing, the girl spoke anonymously from behind a screen and said: "No one deserves the trauma of being raped. I will never get that innocence back."
She also wrote a poem directed towards her attackers which included the line: "All I want to do is die. I no longer have fear for when that comes."
The second girl was 14 when she met the boys at Fordingbridge Recreation Ground, and was raped repeatedly in a nearby field.
Forensic evidence revealed her leggings had been cut with a "sharp instrument".
Video footage seen in court during the trial showed her lying motionless on the ground with "her face buried in her hands", while another boy was heard shouting words of encouragement.
In a statement read on her behalf immediately before sentencing, she described suffering "flashbacks".
"Sometimes I can still feel their hands on me", her statement said, "I feel ashamed, insecure and uncomfortable in my own body".
"The person I was before has completely gone," she added.
Earlier in the hearing, and after their testimony, Judge Rowland spoke directly to the other teenage victim and told her: "The sentence I'm about to pass cannot undo what has happened to you.
"I hope when you look back you'll at least take some comfort that you - both of you - have shown great courage."
The perpetrators, who cannot be named because they are children, were convicted of rape even in circumstances where they aided and abetted another boy to carry out an attack.
Their filming the of the assaults also led to convictions for taking indecent images of children.
The court heard the two older boys, who were involved in both attacks, had each served less than a month in youth detention between their arrests and trial.
The pair were given three-year Youth Rehabilitation Orders (YRO) with 180 days intensive surveillance and supervision.
The third boy's YRO was for 18 months.
The boys were also made subject to a three-month curfew and given a restraining order for 10 years not to contact their victims.
The Crown Prosecution Service warned that rapes and sexual assaults involving young people were "on the increase".
Speaking before sentencing, senior prosecutor Siobhan Blake said: "There is a real part for all of us to play as citizens to make sure that we have really clear conversations with our teens about misogynistic attitudes and push back really hard on those."
