The mother of teenage rape victim who took her own life after being forced to hold up her underwear in court has said she is “appalled” by a recent case in Ireland that has prompted widespread protests.

Thousands of women have shared images of their underwear on Twitter, with the hashtag #this is not consent, following a case in Cork in which a lawyer used an alleged rape victim’s choice of underwear to argue that she consented to sex.

Demonstrations have been held in the UK and the Republic since a 27-year-old man was acquitted after jurors were told his alleged 17-year-old victim was “wearing a thong with a lace front”.

The case has parallels with a trial in Scotland in 2002 in which a 15-year-old boy was found guilty of raping 17-year-old Lindsay Armstrong. She committed suicide two weeks after the court case.

Her parents Linda Armstrong and Frank Ferguson, from New Cumnock in Ayrshire, who found her dead in her bed, said she felt she had been "raped all over again" during a trial that had left her “humiliated and degraded”.