But told guilty men: 'It was you and only you who took advantage of her'

A judge described a teenage rape victim as ‘extremely foolish’ and ‘unwise’ for getting very drunk as he jailed the two men who attacked her.

Craig Whitelaw and Kristofer McLaren, both 21, raped the 18-year-old student in an alley after leading her from a nearby nightclub in an ‘inebriated’ condition.

Earlier the young woman had been seen ‘stumbling’ around and ‘throwing herself’ at men inside the club, Teesside Crown Court was told.

Jailed: Craig Whitelaw, left, and Kristofer McLaren, right, both 21, are beginning nine-year jail sentences for 'a rape of the most squalid kind' after they attacked a woman they had just met on the dancefloor of a nightclub

After her 50-minute ordeal the victim was dishevelled, distressed and covered in blood, with cuts and bruises to her back.

Jailing both men for nine years, Mr Justice Males said that the victim was ‘extremely foolish,’ commenting: ‘She became so drunk that she was vulnerable and defenceless to your exploitation.’

But he also told the defendants: ‘There should be no doubt what you did was still rape, and rape of the most squalid kind.

‘Your victim was very unwise to allow herself to drink so much that she became so thoroughly inebriated. But it was you, and only you, who deliberately took advantage of her condition ... to see what fun you could have with her.

'It's just lasses attention-seeking': What Whitelaw, pictured arriving at court for an earlier hearing, said of the victim after he was arrested by police

‘It was you who decided to treat her body as a plaything on which to act out your sordid fantasies of having a threesome.’

The case comes at a time of huge controversy over the rape laws and the issue – which featured in the conviction of footballer Ched Evans – of a victim being too drunk to consent.

The court heard the woman kissed McLaren and Whitelaw, and CCTV showed them ‘leading her outside’ within 15 minutes of meeting her at Club Amadeus in Northallerton, North Yorkshire.

Paul Newcombe, prosecuting, told the jury the men saw her as ‘an easy target’ and ignored her pleas that she wanted to go back to her friends as they went outside.

The pair bragged to a taxi driver about the ‘threesome’ as they left the scene last August and exchanged jokey texts about what they had done. One described the incident as ‘funny as ****’.

Abattoir worker Whitelaw admitted downing more than a dozen pints of lager as well as a vodka and cola. McLaren told police that he had had seven pints.

The victim was later found to have blood alcohol levels that were double the legal driving limit.

The jury convicted each man of a charge of rape, and Whitelaw of a count of sexual assault. They were cleared of another rape offence.

When Whitelaw was arrested, he admitted having sex, but claimed it was consensual, and said: ‘It’s just lasses attention-seeking.’

McLaren, a former sales worker who had been due to study law at university, later admitted having intercourse. He initially told police: ‘I saw what went on, but I had no part in it.’

After the case Katie Russell from Rape Crisis said the judge’s comments about the victim being extremely foolish were ‘unhelpful’.

But she added: ‘The judge makes it clear that 100 per cent of responsibility for this crime is down to these two men.’

Inebriated: Whitelaw and McLaren had been drinking for most of the day before going to Club Amadeus, pictured, a popular dance venue in Northallerton, North Yorkshire, where they met their victim

Clare Phillipson, of Wearside Women In Need which supports victims of sexual and domestic violence, said: ‘The only person responsible for rape is the rapist.’

This week research by the Office for National Statistics showed that more than a quarter of the public believe victims of rape or sex attacks are at least ‘a little bit responsible’ if they were drunk. Among 16 to 19-year-olds the proportion rises to one in three.

Last month the head of the Crown Prosecution Service, Alison Saunders, said society must ‘challenge’ the view that rape victims should be blamed if they had been ‘drinking.’