Victims of sexual offences denied justice for sake of child perpetrators, says Jess Phillips
Former safeguarding minister calls for sentencing guidelines review and fears crime now seen as ‘content for an eyeball economy’
The former safeguarding minister Jess Phillips has said victims of sexual offences committed by children are being asked to “suck it up” for the sake of their attackers’ rehabilitation and called for a review into sentencing guidelines.
In the past month, cases of teenage boys given lenient sentences after being convicted of rape and sexual assault have provoked public outrage.
In Fordingbridge, Hampshire three boys were given youth rehabilitation orders after two were convicted of rape and one was convicted of involvement in the attackson two girls aged 15 and 14. A sentencing judge at Southampton crown court said he wanted to “avoid criminalising these children unnecessarily”.
On Friday, the Guardian revealed three separate teenage boys convicted of the rape and serious sexual assault of girls as young as 14 in the north-east of England were handed youth rehabilitation orders and ordered to pay court fees of £26, a surcharge imposed on all youth defendants who receive such orders.
Referring to both cases, Phillips, who resigned from the government last month, said it amounted to the victims being asked to “essentially suck it up for the sake of the perception of what is best for the perpetrators”.
Phillips also said sentencing guidelines did not take into account a “growing trend” of children sexually abusing other children.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Phillips said: “I don’t think the sentencing guidelines have been updated with that in mind but more so that the prevention that could be put in place. Early intervention, whether it’s school or through the youth justice system, has kept pace with that changing trend and those things absolutely need to be looked at.”
She also warned that crime may have become “content for an eyeball economy”, with serious offences being filmed “in order to make content”.
The attorney general has referred the sentences of the teenage boys in Fordingbridge to the court of appeal for review as “unduly lenient”.
Phillips called for sentencing guidelines for children to be reviewed, suggesting they placed too much emphasis on the perpetrator and not enough on the victims. Referencing the Southport inquiry, Phillips said: “One of the main findings of the first bit of the inquiry is that where we focus too heavily on the perpetrator and their vulnerabilities, and don’t think about the public safety element.
“We are essentially asking the girls in Fordingbridge, and now these new cases reported in The Guardian, to essentially suck it up for the sake of the perception of what is best for the perpetrators.
“I think absolutely this all needs looking at.”
She also called for more preventative measures to be put in place, including “early intervention” at school or through the justice system.
Asked what was driving the rise in sexual offences committed by children, Phillips said: “I cannot ignore the growth in online pornography, access to the most heinous things online for this generation that just simply didn’t exist in prior generations.
“And so looking at what young people look at online, what they have available to them, and actually whether crime has become content for an eyeball economy.
“Because in some of these cases they were being filmed in order to make content.”