Anyone witness to the scene could have seen it spelt disaster. Waiting for a taxi to take me home after a long night out with colleagues, a couple of hours before dawn, I watched as a girl in a tight, white dress struggled out of the club I’d just left in Hackney, East London.

She was so drunk she could barely stand. As she toppled over on the pavement, spraying the contents of her purse like confetti over the road, my heart sank.

She could barely hold her phone, let alone a conversation, and her friends had clearly left her.

Siam Goodwich admits she has put herself in danger by getting drunk on dates

Meanwhile, high-spirited men gathered around her like moths to a flame.

Why didn’t I stop to help her, you may ask. If I had I would have been duty-bound to stop and rescue every young woman I spotted on my two-mile journey, most of them solitary and struggling to make their wobbly journey home. And to do that I’d have needed to hire a double decker.

One or two had attracted assistance from men who could as easily have been white knights as would-be rapists. But even sober, who could tell?

I hope to God nothing happened to these girls or the undoubtedly thousands sprawled on similar pavements up and down the country that night.

But if it did, how on earth could the legal system protect them?

It is here that I have to concede that Judge Mary Jane Mowat has a point. After a controversial interview to mark her retirement, the 66-year-old has — as she predicted — been pilloried for claiming ‘rape conviction statistics will not improve until women stop getting so drunk’.

She clarified: ‘I’m not saying it’s right to rape a drunken woman, I’m not saying for a moment that it’s allowable to take advantage of a drunken woman.

‘But a jury in a position where they’ve got a woman who says, “I was absolutely off my head, I can’t really remember what I was doing, I can’t remember what I said, I can’t remember if I consented or not, but I know I wouldn’t have done”, I mean when a jury is faced with something like that, how are they supposed to react?’

Her comments have caused a storm and led to sexual-abuse charities condemning them as ‘outrageous, misguided and frankly dangerous’.

But as a single, 31-year-old woman with my own fair share of drunken escapades under my belt, I not only agree with her, but am glad she’s had the courage to talk about it.

Drinking to excess has become the new normal for women in their 20s and 30s. If you’re single and working hard, you’re living for the weekend, and shaming though it might be to admit it, hellbent on getting completely wasted.

I have 30-something professional friends who get so drunk they can’t remember what happened the night before when they wake up in a stranger’s bed.

I have had my fair share of online dates with perfect strangers where I’ve used alcohol as rocket fuel; that essential boost you need to get things off the ground. I don’t know anyone who has been sober on a date.

Yet first dates, particularly with men we have met online, are the occasions when we should be on our guard. Most men are harmless, but how do you know?

A few years ago, I went on a date with a man I had met in a club called Tom. We arranged to go to a bar for a drink, and I was so nervous I had barely eaten anything all day to try to keep my stomach as flat as possible to ensure I could fit into the dress I planned to wear. Straight away I downed a couple of glasses of white wine to quell the butterflies, and then I drank some more.

Judge Jane Mowat, who has just retired, has been pilloried by sex abuse charities for claiming ‘rape conviction statistics will not improve until women stop getting so drunk’

Pretty soon it was clear I had overdone it — I was falling off my stool, barely able to speak.

Tom realised something was wrong and took me to a restaurant nearby to get some food inside me. By then I could barely see the menu, let alone read it.

Tom sat with me until I had finished a chicken curry and then he sent me home. He behaved gallantly. I was mortified the next day, but relieved that I had got off so lightly.

Siam admits that she gets drunk on dates but says she takes responsibility for her actions

Since that night, I have been more cautious when meeting men I don’t know, but I have many friends who are far less careful.

Of course, women should be able to get drunk and have a good time, throw caution to the wind and let their hair down. Being drunk is not ‘asking for it’. But if the worst does happen, it’s clearly an impediment to securing a criminal conviction.

Naivety, especially mixed with alcohol, can spell disaster and we shouldn’t be sticking our heads in the sand about it.

It’s important for young women to accept that reality and take responsibility for their actions.

There will, sadly, always be men who will take advantage of a woman in a vulnerable situation. The only thing within our power is to keep our wits about us so we can be on our guard. Let me be clear: I don’t believe in victim blaming. Drunkenness does not excuse a rapist. But let’s not pretend it doesn’t present those who would do you harm with an opportunity — and a means to avoid conviction.

Growing up in London, my parents made sure I knew how to look after myself. It was drilled into me never to get separated from the group, never to walk home alone or get so drunk that I couldn’t even remember my name and address.

Luckily, I have always managed to get myself home in a cab after a night of drunkenness. But what if that night with Tom had turned out differently? What if one of those taxi drivers had been a rogue rapist?

Would I have been able to fight them off? Probably not.