A female judge who told women they were at greater risk of being raped if they got drunk has been accused of victim-blaming by a police commissioner.

During her sentencing of a rapist in Manchester, Lindsey Kushner said there was “absolutely no excuse” for sex attacks, but that men gravitated towards vulnerable women.

In her final case before retiring, the judge said women were entitled to “drink themselves into the ground”, but their disinhibited behaviour could put them in danger and they were less likely to be believed than a sober victim.

The Northumbria police and crime commissioner, Dame Vera Baird, said the comments were “victim-blaming” and would stop victims coming forward.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Vera Baird. Photograph: Tessa Bunney/The Guardian

The former solicitor-general told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: “When somebody is raped they feel guilt and shame and they find it very hard to report it.

“If a judge has just said to them ‘well, if you drank you are more likely to get raped, we are not likely to believe you and you have been disinhibited so you’ve rather brought it on yourself’ then that guilt is just going to get worse.”



The former Labour MP said the judge should have given advice to help women stay safe instead of implying “it’s your fault for having attracted him in the first place”.

“She does say ‘yes, you can drink yourself daft and you can use your body how you want, but if you do you are more likely to get raped’. Now, I’m sorry, but that is putting responsibility on it.”



Ricardo Rodrigues-Fortes-Gomes. Photograph: Greater Manchester police

Kushner made her comments when she sentenced Ricardo Rodrigues-Fortes-Gomes, 19, to six years’ jail for raping an 18-year-old woman he met in a fast food restaurant in Manchester city centre last year.

She said rapists targeted people who were vulnerable and urged women to bear this in mind.

“Girls are perfectly entitled to drink themselves into the ground but should be aware people who are potential defendants to rape gravitate towards girls who have been drinking. It shouldn’t be like that, but it does happen and we see it time and time again.”

Drunk girls and women were “less likely to fight a man with evil intentions off” and 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 than one who is sober at the time. I beg girls and women to have this in mind.”

The campaign group End Violence Against Women said Kushner’s comments were alarming. “When judges basically blame victims for rape by suggesting how much alcohol a woman drinks or what she wears is part of what causes rape, we remove the responsibility from the man who did it.”

A spokesperson for the group said the comments were “exactly the kind of thing that deters women from reporting assaults. Women understandably think that they will not be believed, or will be blamed for their own attack if they’ve had a drink.

“This judge should set a tone much higher than the victim-blaming attitudes which support and perpetuate violence against women.”

The group pointed out that women already take steps as a matter of routine. “They leave early, get taxis instead of buses, don’t wear ‘that’ top or ‘that’ skirt and they still get raped.”