A JUDGE has caused outrage by branding a rape victim "extremely foolish" for drinking too much before she was attacked by two men.

Campaigners reacted angrily to the remarks made by Mr Justice Males as he jailed the teenager's boastful attackers for nine years.

Kristofer McLaren and Craig Whitelaw, both 21, took advantage of the student's state and led her from a nightclub for a threesome.

Whitelaw admitted downing more than a dozen pints of lager as well as half-a-dozen bottles and a vodka and cola.

McLaren told police after his arrest that he had seven pints before meeting the stranger in Club Amadeus in Northallerton, North Yorkshire.

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

In his sentencing remarks at Teesside Crown Court, Mr Justice Males said: "This was a girl whose behaviour was extremely foolish."

He told her attackers: "Your victim was very unwise to allow herself to drink so much that she became so thoroughly inebriated.

"She became so drunk that she was vulnerable and defenceless to your exploitation of her . . . she had had far too much to drink."

Clare Phillipson, director of Wearside Women in Need, said tonight (Friday): "His totally unnecessary comments are exactly the kind of attitude that prevents rape victims coming forward."

She added: "This young woman suffered a horrendous ordeal and the only person responsible for rape is the rapist.

"Women get raped whether they are drunk or sober, thin or fat, old or young, it doesn't matter, we get raped.

"It is completely unacceptable for people to continually look at the behaviour of the victim instead of looking at the behaviour of the offender."

Would-be law student McLaren and his pal Whitelaw were found guilty of raping the brunette despite their claims that sex was consensual.

North Yorkshire Police said after the case in a statement that the victim had been "treated like a piece of meat" by the two men.

They led her to a dark alleyway close to Club Amadeus where they left her bleeding and distressed after her 50-minute ordeal.

The judge was scathing in his assessment of the otherwise decent young men - but it is his remarks about the victim which drew criticism.

Northumbria’s Police and Crime Commissioner, Vera Baird, joined in the condemnation of the comments, saying: “'The problem is not women drinking but men raping them. These men preyed upon a woman unable to say no, to resist or defend herself against them. They deliberately took advantage of a vulnerable victim.

“Rape can have the appalling long term effects, made ten times worse by being blamed by a public figure who has a duty to inform himself before he speaks out.

“Rapists are often serial offenders and foolish comments like this, which discourage others from complaining, come close to aiding and abetting them in their offending.”

McLaren, of Rymer Way, Thirsk, was convicted of rape, and Whitelaw, of Ivy Cottage, Sutton, was found guilty of rape and sexual assault.