ACCORDING to a major survey carried out by Mumsnet in 2012, the vast majority of the victims of sexual assaults never come forward. More than 80 per cent of the 1,600 respondents said they did not report their attackers to the police, largely because of negative social attitudes towards the victims of that type of crime.

Women are afraid to come forward for fear that they won't be believed or because they may somehow be blamed for what happened.

That is why we believe Mr Justice Males should reflect on the comment he made at Teesside Crown Court this week as he jailed two young men for raping an 18-year-old student outside a nightclub in Northallerton.

The judge said the rape victim had been "extremely foolish" for drinking too much before she was attacked by 21-year-olds Kristofer McLaren and Craig Whitelaw.

The question is why he felt the need to make that comment – why he needed to pass any kind of judgement on the victim who had been subjected to an abhorrent crime.

It was not the young woman who was on trial and, whether she was drunk or not, has no bearing on the guilt of the two men who raped her.

The criminal justice system – police, lawyers, judges – have a crucial part to play in improving the conviction rate of rapists. Eight out of ten of them getting away with it - and that is a scandalous statistic.

Justice will never be fully served unless those negative social attitudes to the victims of sexual assault are addressed. And wholly unnecessary comments by judges don't help one bit.