Two 15-year-old boys who were spared custody for the rape of two girls have been sentenced to four years’ detention after the court of appeal ruled their sentences were “unduly lenient”.

After a national outcry, the attorney general, Richard Hermer, referred the case to the court to consider whether the sentences given to three boys – identified only as X, Y and Z – were too light

The convictions related to the rape of two girls in separate incidents in Fordingbridge, Hampshire, in November 2024 and January last year.

In the first attack, a 15-year-old girl was raped by X and Y, both aged 14 at the time. In the second attack, at which Z was present, X and Y took it in turns to rape a 14-year-old girl while the others encouraged and filmed the offending.

On Thursday, the lady chief justice, Sue Carr, sitting at the high court in London with two other judges, said the trial judge had erred by giving them all youth rehabilitation orders.

Addressing the boys, who attended the hearing via videolink from Southampton crown court, Carr told X and Y: “We have decided that we do need to change your sentence and that both of you do need to go into detention.

“We have made that decision because we think that what you both did was so bad that we have no other choice. You both raped two girls on two different occasions … You made it worse by filming what you did, which was a horrible thing to do.”

She said their sentences would be reduced by the amount of time each had spent in detention before trial and half of the time they spent on curfew. But restraining orders on contacting their victims would be extended from 10 years to life and they would also be subject to police notification requirements for life, she said.

Carr told Z that although he had not physically raped a girl, what he had done was also “very bad”, by encouraging Y to rape the second victim. She said: “We have decided that because you were very young and find some things really very difficult to understand, and because you were only involved on one occasion, we do not need to change your sentence.”

At Southampton crown court on 21 May, X and Y were each given a three-year youth rehabilitation order and intensive supervision and surveillance (ISS). Z was given an 18-month youth rehabilitation order.