'Rape victims can be partly responsible for their ordeal' says top woman barrister

• Barbara Hewson questioned whether rape victims are 'utterly innocent'
• She argued they can have 'moral responsibility' at a university debate
• She also challenged the idea that 'victimisation must always be respected'
  

By Kieran Corcoran

Published: 08:23 EDT, 1 November 2013 | Updated: 10:11 EDT, 1 November 2013

'Moral responsibility': Barbara Hewson, a prominent barrister, suggested some victims may be partly responsible for being raped

Rape victims can be partly responsible for what happened to them, according to a leading lawyer.

Barbara Hewson, a human rights and civil liberties barrister at London's Hardwicke Chambers, challenged the idea that 'the victim is utterly innocent and the victimiser is utterly guilty'.

Miss Hewson, who describes herself on Twitter as 'not for the easily offended', suggested that people who are raped can have a 'moral responsibility' for the crime, even though the law says that rape is only ever the fault of the rapist.

She also questioned whether 'claims of victimisation must always be respected', according to The Daily Telegraph.

Miss Hewson, 52, made the comments during a debate with other legal professionals at the London School of Economics on Wednesday, entitled 'Is Rape Different?'

She said: 'We need to make a distinction between legal responsibility and moral responsibility.

'The law does not attribute any responsibility now to the victim of rape whereas traditionally we know the judge would say when they came to sentence "well she was contributorally [sic] negligent" or something like that.'

While outlining what she views as the received wisdom when discussing, Miss Hewson dismissed the idea 'that it's morally absolutely unambiguous, the victim is utterly innocent and the victimiser is utterly guilty and this is infinitesimal. And finally that claims of victimisation must always be respected, anything less is victim-blaming.'

Miss Hewson compared a rape victim to somebody who falls over whilst drunk to demonstrate that people can put themselves in a situation where they are more likely to fall victim to a crime.

She also attacked a culture around rape which encourages people to 'realise' they have been raped, and added that some victims go on to blame their ordeal for everything that goes wrong in their life.

Debate: Miss Hewson made her comments at a London School of Economics event entitled 'Is Rape Different?'

Rape Crisis spokesman Fiona Elvines condemned Miss Hewson's argument, telling the Telegraph:  'Barbara Hewson shows how out of touch she is with the realities of sexual violence. As a society, we have moved on from the rape myths she continues to propagate.'

Miss Hewson, a Cambridge graduate who has worked as a barrister since 1985, has courted controversy on sexual offences before, by attacking the decision to double the sentence for broadcaster Stuart Hall.

His original sentence of 15 months in prison for 14 counts of indecent assault was increased to 30 months after a public outcry.

She has also previously called for the age of consent to be lowered to 13 and criticised the 'witch-hunt' of ageing celebrities accused of sexual abuse.

Miss Hewson was unavailable for comment this morning.