Drunk women risk getting raped, says Judge

A female judge has been accused of victim-blaming after she warned that women are at greater risk of being raped if they get drunk.

Retiring judge Lindsey Kushner QC warned that girls’ “disinhibited behaviour” put them in danger of being raped by men who “gravitate” towards drunken females, according to the Telegraph. She was speaking after she jailed a man for six years after he raped a drunken girl in July last year. “How I see it is burglars are out there and nobody says burglars are OK but we do say ‘please don’t leave your back door open at night, take steps to protect yourselves’,” Judge Kushner said.

She said drunk girls and women were “less likely to fight a man with evil intentions off” and they were also less likely to report an attack because they may not be able to remember what happened or “if push comes to shove, a girl who has been drunk is less likely to be believed”.

Northumbria Police and Crime Commissioner Dame Vera Baird told BBC the comments were “victim-blaming”.