Helen Mirren: Sexually jealous women jurors think rape victims are asking for it

Dame Helen Mirren was accused by the Solicitor General of making ignorant, absurd and dangerous comments yesterday after speaking out again about rape prosecutions.

In an interview, the 63-year-old Oscar-winning actress said that in such cases female jurors are deliberately selected by defence barristers because 'women go against women'.

She suggested that women jurors are less likely to convict a rapist since they tend to think the victim was 'asking for it'.

Dame Helen: 'Women on a rape jury would say the victim asked for it'

Her comments, months after she declared that cases where women are raped after willingly going to bed with a man should not come to court, horrified Solicitor General Vera Baird.

She said Dame Helen had made false assumptions about how juries are selected, and warned that her words could deter rape victims from reporting their ordeals.

Interviewed by the Sunday Times, Dame Helen said that in a rape case, the defence team 'would select as many women as they could for the jury, because women go against women.

'Whether in a deep-seated animalistic way, going back billions of years, or from a sense of tribal jealousy or just antagonism, I don't know.

Criticism: Solicitor General Vera Baird

'But other women on a rape case would say she was asking for it. The only reason I can think of is that they're sexually jealous.'

Dame Helen, who won her Oscar for her portrayal of the Queen, has previously said she was date-raped twice herself when she was young but did not report the attacks because 'you couldn't do that in those days'.

Yesterday Vera Baird QC pointed out that juries are selected at random and neither defence nor prosecution has the power to handpick a jury based on their suitability for the trial.

Mrs Baird, who has long fought for the rights of rape victims, said: 'This is just such an ignorant thing to say, to suggest that the defence or prosecution have any involvement in the selection of a jury.

'It's just absurd. First of all, it's completely factually incorrect. It shows an absolute lack of knowledge about the way the criminal justice system works.

'I do not know what she is talking about, women hating women.

'This is a vast generalisation based on nothing, but unfortunately it is likely to have a deterrent effect.

'It's such a shame that a person who has a high profile feels qualified and able to put forward this nonsense. It's capable of being quite dangerous because someone in that position saying that sort of thing, suggesting that she knows more than she actually does.

'It's hard enough for victims who often feel guilt and shame to come forward in the first place. But to put forward this false idea that some covert conspiracy exists in the criminal justice system is very ignorant and totally and utterly wrong.'

In September Dame Helen told GQ magazine that if a woman voluntarily ended up in a man's bedroom, took her clothes off and engaged in sexual activity, she still had the right to say 'no' at the last second.

If the man ignored her, she said, that was rape. But she continued: 'I don't think she can have that man into court under those circumstances.'