TWO friends are starting nine-year prison sentences for raping a teenager in an alley after leading her drunk from a nearby nightclub.

Craig Whitelaw and Kristofer McLaren were told by a judge that they had used the student "as a plaything" within minutes of meeting her.

The pair took advantage of her to have a "threesome" after she "threw herself" at men in Club Amadeus in Northallerton, North Yorkshire.

They then bragged to a taxi driver as they left the scene, and later exchanged text messages about what they had done in August last year.

The case at Teesside Crown Court highlighted the perils of excessive drinking and was a "salutary lesson", said one defence barrister.

Abattoir worker Whitelaw, 21, said that he downed more than a dozen pints of lager as well as half-a-dozen bottles and a vodka and cola.

McLaren, also 21, told police after his arrest in August that he had seven pints - firstly in his home town of Thirsk then in Northallerton.

The 18-year-old victim - "clearly intoxicated and stumbling repeatedly" - had blood alcohol levels that were double the legal driving limit.

Mr Justice Males said she was "extremely foolish", adding: "She became so drunk that she was vulnerable and defenceless to your exploitation."

He told the men, from Thirsk, North Yorkshire: "There should be no doubt what you did was still rape, and rape of the most squalid kind.

"Your victim was very unwise to allow herself to drink so much that she became so thoroughly inebriated. But it was you, and only you, who deliberately took advantage of her condition . . . to see what fun you could have with her.

"It was you who decided to treat her body as a plaything on which to act out your sordid fantasies of having a threesome."

He added: "The alcohol which you had consumed no doubt caused you to behave in ways which you would not have done when sober.

"But you were fully in control of your senses, knew what you were doing and had no difficulty in exercising normal control over bodily movements.

"In contrast, your victim was heavily intoxicated. She had had far too much to drink, was stumbling and unsteady on her feet, and was throwing herself at a number of young men in the club."

The court heard how she kissed McLaren and Whitelaw, and CCTV showed them "leading her outside" within 15 minutes of meeting her.

Prosecutor Paul Newcombe told the jury at the beginning of the nine-day trial last week that the men saw the brunette as "an easy target".

The accused admitted she seemed unsteady on her feet, but blamed her high heels and claimed she did not appear to be too drunk to them.

When Whitelaw was arrested, he admitted having sex, but claimed it was consensual, and said: "It's just lasses attention-seeking."

Former steel sales worker McLaren later admitted having intercourse, but initially said: "I saw what went on, but I had no part in it."

Accused of confessing only when DNA evidence "trapped him", he claimed he lied because he felt guilty about cheating on his girlfriend.

The jury convicted each of the men of one charge of rape, and Whitelaw of a count of sexual assault. They were cleared of another rape each.

Charles Royle, said McLaren, of Rymer Way, Thirsk, who held his head in his hands at the guilty verdict, had ruined his plans to study law.

Paul Cleasby, for Whitelaw, of Ivy Cottage, Sutton, who shook his head at the verdict, said he had learned a salutary lesson about his boozing.

He told the court: "It is quite clear the defendants were in a similar situation to the complainant in terms of the alcohol consumed.

"The defendant has his good character, his good work record. It appears to be an isolated offence which is highly unlikely to be repeated.

"A salutary lesson learned for him in terms of the amount of alcohol he consumes, and how he behaves when he is intoxicated.

"This is a young man who had far far too much to drink that night . . . and behaved in a way My Lord will think reprehensible."

Mr Royle said McLaren will lose his place to study law at Leeds University in the summer, and said his life is now in tatters.

"A young man with a promising future now completely ruined through his own stupidity, recklessness and poor behaviour that night.

"It was poor behaviour that was not within his intention. He went out to celebrate the start of the football season with a minibus full of friends."

Both men must sign on the sex offenders' register for life, and the judge told them: "Both of your lives held much promise.

"What you did that night has blighted your own lives and your families' as well as your victim's . . . it has left ongoing emotional scars."

The men both made "salute" signals to their families in the public gallery as they were led away to begin their sentences.

The judge told them: "I do not doubt that neither of you would have behaved as you did if you had been sober. No doubt you both regret it.

"But the fact is you both did what you did, knowing full well what you were doing. Moreover, you have not acknowledged your guilt."