FORMER UK TV presenter Nick Ross has provoked outrage by suggesting "rape isnt always rape" when the victim is drunk, with a boyfriend, or has gone "too far" in leading a man on.

In a new book, Nick Ross adds that it has become "sacrilege to suggest there can be any gradation: rape is rape."

"Yet the real experts, the victims, know otherwise.

"Half of all women who have had penetrative sex unwillingly do not think they were raped and this proportion rises strongly when the assault involves a boyfriend, or if the woman is drunk or high on drugs: they led him on, they went too far, it wasn’t forcible, they didn’t make themselves clear. . .

"For them, rape isn’t always rape and, however upsetting, they feel it is a long way removed from being systematically violated or snatched off the street."

HERO COP CHARGED WITH RAPE

Although he insists he is not blaming victims and criticises the ‘booze culture’, Mr Ross’s remarks were yesterday condemned as outdated, misogynistic and immensely damaging by anti-rape campaigners.

Jo Woods, a trustee of Rape Crisis, said: "I feel absolute fury. I really thought we had moved on from such outdated and ridiculous viewpoints.

"I feel sad for the thousands of women who will read these views and believe that finally they have the validation that they must have been to blame – because Nick Ross says so.

"Such comments do immense damage to victims of sexual violence. They stifle them. They prevent them from coming forward for the help they need. These comments are ill-advised, uneducated and quite simply wrong."

And Victim Support, with which Mr Ross has worked as a "media partner", said Mr Ross’s views were his own and it did not share them.

In an extract from his new book Crime, published in today’s Mail on Sunday, Mr Ross suggests victims who do not report the crime to the police might sometimes be right not to do so, adding: "What if she feels partly responsible for what happened?"

He also draws parallels between some rape victims and "foolish" people who have their laptops stolen because they leave them on the back seat of their cars.

Mr Ross, best known for co-hosting BBC1’s Crimewatch with the late Jill Dando, adds: "Rape victims were once treated appallingly, as though it was all their fault. But have we gone too far the other way? Many victims seem to think we have."

He continues: "We would laugh at a bank that stored sacks of cash by the front door. We would be aghast if an airport badly skimped on its security.

"Our forebears might be astonished at how safe women are today given what throughout history would have been regarded as incitement.

"Not even in the licentious days of the Charles II Restoration in the 17th Century was it acceptable for women to dress as provocatively as they have done in Western culture since the 1960s.

"Equally they would be baffled that girls are mostly unescorted, stay out late, often get profoundly drunk and sometimes openly kiss, grope or go to bed with one-night stands.

"No amount of temptation can excuse rape, or any other crime . . . Yet for some it is heresy to suggest that victims should ever be held responsible at all."

The former journalist, who is now involved in the academic study of crime, relies on academic research for the claim that many women who have been subject to non-compliant sex do not regard themselves as having been raped.

One research paper, published in the Psychology Of Women Quarterly in September 2003, said it had confirmed a number of earlier studies that had found that fewer than half of victims categorised their experience as rape.

The research, which questioned 89 victims, also found that women were more likely to believe they were raped if their attacker was not their boyfriend, if they experienced a more forceful assault or if the experience was particularly upsetting.

Mr Ross challenges those who say all cases should be reported to the police: "The assumption is that any woman who chooses not to pursue a claim is being let down by the State or is acting irrationally.

"But could it be that she is right? What if she feels partly responsible for what happened? What if she realises there is no evidence other than her word against his? What if her life is bound up with that of her assailant? What if she feels humiliated as well as violated? Should she be expected to disclose all this in public and put her life on hold for the greater good?"

In separate comments to The Mail on Sunday, Mr Ross said the "last thing" he wanted to do was to blame women for their misfortune. But he added: "If it was a one-night stand and things got out of hand and she was drunk and he was drunk, it would be absurd to say she did not contribute."

But critics insisted Mr Ross was suggesting some women were at least partly to blame if they were raped.

Sarah Green, a spokesman for the Women Against Violence Coalition, said: "Nick Ross sticks with very tired and deeply misogynistic prejudices about 'provocative dress'.This is an appalling misrepresentation of what actually happens.’

And Vivienne Hayes, chief executive officer of the Women’s Resource Centre, said: "Does Ross think all women and girls should lock themselves away or wear a chastity belt because men and boys are not expected to monitor and control their behaviour?"

