The sentences handed to three teenage boys convicted of raping two young girls in Fordingbridge are very lenient, and I expect them to be challenged.

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The Attorney General, Lord Hermer, is considering referring the case to the Court of Appeal, but the government's planned reforms to the youth justice system only promise to make similar outcomes more common.

As a criminal defence solicitor specialising in sexual offences, I have advised many families whose child has been accused of a sexual offence. Most of these cases relate to indecent images, often involving two teenagers exchanging intimate images of themselves, or a teenage boy seeking age-appropriate but illegal pornography of people his own age. Over the course of my career, I have also dealt with a number of cases where children have been accused of rape or sexual assault, but........

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