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”.