Rape is rarely a violent crime and should be punishable by 200 hours of community service, Germaine Greer has suggested, as she poured scorn on the idea that victims are left with post traumatic stress disorder.

The feminist said the system must be overhauled because few cases that hinge on consent end in a conviction. She joked that the most suitable punishment would be for rapists to have an “R” tattooed on their hand or cheek.

Greer was the victim of a rape when she was in her late teens – a violent attack in which she was repeatedly beaten.

But she told an audience at the Hay Festival: “Most rapes don’t involve any injury whatsoever. We are told it’s one of the most violent crimes in the world – bull----. Most rape is just lazy, just careless, just insensitive. Every time a man rolls over on his exhausted wife and insists on enjoying his conjugal right, he is raping her. It will never end up in a court of law.”