Minister Grows Emotional While Discussing Teenage Rape Victim’s Case

A minister grew visibly emotional on live TV this morning following a troubling BBC interview with a teenage rape victim.

A girl who was raped by two teenage boys told Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg that the judge’s decision to spare her attackers jail was like a “rock straight in my face”.

Speaking anonymously with her family, she said the move “always made it seem as if what the boys did was not OK, but it was OK in the eyes of the law because they were still children”.

Judge Nichoas Rowland said on Thursday he wanted to avoid “criminalising” the “very young” boys.

The attorney general, Lord Hermer, is set to review the sentence.

The two defendants were also convicted of attacking another victim with a third boy.

Both rapes were filmed by the boys and some of the footage was shared online.

Chief secretary to the prime minister Darren Jones, who has three daughters, told the BBC that the government is looking at this case “urgently”.

He said: “As a minister I’m not allowed to get ahead of the attorney general’s decision but those girls deserve justice, as do their families, both for them and other girls put in the position.

“Quite frankly the boys need to know they can’t behave in that way and get away with it.”

Kuenssberg said: “You are here as a minister but I can tell from listening to you, as a dad, I think you found that quite hard to watch and to listen to.”

“It was very hard to watch because no parent wants their daughter to be in those circumstances,” Jones said, as his voice started to break. “You don’t want a society in which girls are growing up in those circumstances.”

Asked if he worries about the message this particular case sends to the public, he said: “I do because those young women deserve justice but I also worry about it because boys need to know they cannot behave that way.

“It is not acceptable in society. And if you do that, there must be consequences for it.”

Jones added that while not all boys are violent or do not care about women, “there are too many incidents like this” and it was important to have a “national conversation” about such assaults.

Prime minister Keir Starmer later responded to Kuenssberg’s interview with the rape victim.

He wrote on X: “This is a harrowing and brave testimony.

“The girls at the heart of this case have shown extraordinary bravery and strength in heinous circumstances.

“This is an appalling case and it is right that law officers are urgently reviewing the sentences.”

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch also described the sentencing as a “disgrace” and Reform’s Treasury spokesperson Robert Jenrick said the judge had made a “very bad error”.

Subscribe to Commons People, the podcast that makes politics easy. Every week, Kevin Schofield and Kate Nicholson unpack the week’s biggest stories to keep you informed. Join us for straightforward analysis of what’s going on at Westminster.