LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — Two British teenagers convicted of rape must serve time in custody, an appeals judge ruled Thursday, after a public outcry over a judge’s decision to spare them detention.

Lower court judge Nicholas Rowland in May sentenced the two 15-year-old boys to three-year youth rehabilitation orders, saying he wanted to “avoid criminalising these children unnecessarily”.

However, the sentences provoked a severe backlash, prompting Attorney General Richard Hermer — the government’s chief legal adviser — to refer them to the Court of Appeal in London for potentially being “unduly lenient”.

The teenagers raped two girls, aged 14 and 15, in separate incidents in November 2024 and January 2025 in Hampshire in southern England. Video of the attacks were shared online.

Quashing the sentences, Judge Sue Carr told the pair, who cannot be named due to their age, they both needed “to go into detention”, and sentenced them to four years’ youth detention.

“What you did was so bad that we have no other choice,” she said, addressing them by video link.

The non-custodial sentence handed to a third boy will remain unchanged.

He was convicted of rape charges for encouraging the second defendant in last year’s incident.

French rape survivor Gisele Pelicot added her voice to those who criticised the original sentences during a visit to Britain.

She told the BBC she was “deeply shocked that these individuals were in fact able to gain their freedom again when in fact the victims are suffering so hard they will never be able to heal”.

Pelicot has become a global symbol in the fight against sexual violence after she waived her right to anonymity during the 2024 trial of her ex-husband and dozens of strangers who raped her while she was unconscious.

The non-custodial sentences had included 180 days of so-called intensive supervision and surveillance.

The teenagers will initially serve their sentences in youth detention as only those aged 18 or over are held in jail.