The lenient sentencing of two teenage boys who filmed the rape of young girls in separate attacks has been criticized by French rape survivor Gisele Pelicot.
The boys, two aged 15 and one 14, were given youth rehabilitation orders and subjected to intensive supervision and supervision.
Judge Nicholas Rowland told the two boys: “I must avoid unnecessarily criminalizing these children and understand the effects of their behavior and support their reintegration into society.”
But the lack of jail time for the horrific crimes has sparked protests from across the UK – including the Prime Minister Keir Starmerwho said the sentences were ‘horrendous’.
Gisele, 73, has now spoken out about the shocking sentences after finding herself at the center of the biggest rape trial in French history.
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“I was deeply shocked that these individuals were actually able to regain their freedom, when in fact the victims are suffering so much that they will never be able to recover,” she said. BBC Breakfast.
One of the young victims said BBCSunday with Laura Kuensberg that the decision to spare her attacker from prison was a ‘rock straight in her face’.
Pelicot said she hoped her story had helped the 16-year-old girl press charges, adding: “I really applaud her strength and the decision she made because I know it’s an incredibly difficult decision.”
The Attorney General is reviewing the judge’s decision.
The trial at Southampton Crown Court heard that the victims were raped in two separate incidents in Fordingbridge. Hampshirewith the first attack occurring on November 26, 2024 and the second on January 17, 2025.
Jodie Mittel KC, prosecuting, told the court the girl visited one of the defendants in November 2024 after meeting him on Snapchat.
The prosecutor said that after performing sexual acts on the boy, who was then 14, she became ‘frightened and disturbed’ when the second defendant arrived and the pair raped her while the incident was filmed.
Ms Mittel said that afterwards, videos of the incident were sent and other people made fun of her, and she received messages calling her a “sl*g”.
The complainant in the January incident, who was 14 at the time, was raped in a field near the recreation ground in Fordingbridge, also during filming.
At a sentencing hearing on Thursday, a 15-year-old boy was handed a three-year YRO with 180 days ISS for raping each of two girls and two counts of indecent images.
The court heard he had been diagnosed with ADHD, as well “for a long time”. nightmarish.’
A second 15-year-old was given the same sentence for three counts of rape against each of the two victims and four counts of making indecent images in connection with filming the incidents.
A third boy, aged 14, was given a YRO for 18 months for two counts of rape in the January incident by encouraging the second defendant and one offense of indecent images.
or the government The spokesman said the attorney general’s office had received numerous requests for sentences to be reviewed under the Light Inappropriate Scheme.
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