Rape case judge angers women

Women's groups reacted angrily after a judge told a rapist that his offence was not so bad because he knew his victim.

Sentencing David Forrest, 36, of Alresford, Hampshire, to 3 1/2 years' jail, Judge Michael Addison said: 'This is not in my view the more serious type of rape - that is the rape of a total stranger.' Winchester Crown Court had been told that Forrest raped the woman after she rejected his advances.

A spokeswoman for Rape Crisis Line said: 'More than 90 per cent of rapes are committed by men who know their victims and it is about time courts recognised this. It makes it very hard for a woman to go through the ordeal of going to court if justice is not really done.'