'If you hadn't been there none of this would have happened': Female judge tells groping victim she brought attack on herself because she was at a BAR



A female judge is being urged to resign after telling a woman who was groped by an off-duty police officer that she brought the attack on herself because she was at a bar.

Judge Jacqueline Hatch, of Arizona's Coconino County Superior Court, told the unnamed woman 'if you wouldn't have been there that night, none of this would have happened to you,' at a sentencing hearing on Wednesday.



Hatch then went on to tell the courtroom that even going to the grocery store after 10pm was dangerous for women, according to the Arizona Daily Sun .



Groper: Judge Jacqueline Hatch's comments came as Robb Gary Evans, pictured, was sentenced for putting his hand up the woman's skirt in a bar

The victim is demanding the judge apologise for her controversial remarks.

More than 6,969 people have signed a petition on social activism website Change.org calling for the judge to resign.

The comments came as former Department of Public Safety officer, Robb Gary Evans, 43, was sentenced to two years' probation for the incident, which took place last summer.



Echoes of 'The Accused'

The case has echoes of the renowned 1988 film 'The Accused' starring Jody Foster in which a woman named Sarah Tobias is gang-raped in a bar. She has spent the night taking drugs that night and is acting provocatively toward men in the bar in the hours leading up to the rape.

In the aftermath the district attorney battles to prove that Sarah's behaviour was no reason for the brutal attack and that the rapists should be brought to justice. The story was based on the real-life gang-rape of Cheryl Araujo in Massachusetts. It was one of the first Hollywood films to directly deal with rape.

The jury found Evans guilty of felony sexual abuse after walking up behind the woman in the bar, in Flagstaff, Arizona, putting his hands up her skirt and touching her inappropriately.



He was fired by DPS after his conviction.



Hatch said she wasn't blaming the victim in the case but insisted that all women must be vigilant against becoming victims.

But the woman who was groped told the Arizona Daily Sun that despite her explanation, she was 'shocked' by the judge's comments, particularly because she was female.



'It felt like she was saying to me, "If you wouldn't have been there that night, it wouldn't have happened to you."



'Yeah, well, it probably would have happened to someone else,' she told the newspaper.



'I'm still kind of in shock that she said that to me.



'Coming from a woman, I would expect her to be a little bit more realistic about women being strong and independent and the fact that there's nothing wrong with that.'



Hatch, a Republican, was appointed to the bench by Governor Jan Brewer in June 2010 and elected to a full term that November.

