ACTRESS Helen Mirren has angered anti-rape campaigners by suggesting that women who are date-raped should not expect to take those who have violated them to court.
According to news reports, the Oscar-winning actress revealed in an interview with former tabloid editor Piers Morgan that she had been date-raped in her late teens and 20s when she moved to London.
The 63-year-old actress said that she had not reported the incidents to police, but caused controversy by suggesting that those who date-rape should not necessarily be considered rapists in a criminal sense, reported British newspaper The Independent.
Referring to boxer Mike Tyson, who was convicted of raping a Miss Black America contestant in a hotel room in 1992, Mirren told Mr Morgan: "It's such a tricky area, isn't it? Especially if there is no violence."
The star of the movie The Queen (2006) added she believed that if a woman voluntarily ended up in a man's bedroom and engaged in sexual activity, she still had the right to say "no", and that if a man ignored that request it should not be considered rape.
"I don't think she can take that man to court under those circumstances. I guess it is one of the subtle parts of the man/woman relationship that has to be negotiated and worked out between them," she said.
Her comments, which will be published in next month's GQ magazine, drew an angry response from women's groups and anti-rape campaigners, who have long argued that all non-consensual sex should be classified as rape.
Ms Jasvinder Sanghera, who runs the Karma Nirvana charity in Derby, which helps victims of rape and domestic violence, told The Independent that Mirren's comments "help reinforce the whole 'She's asking for it' mentality".
"If a person says 'no', it means 'no'," said Ms Sanghera.
Ms Vera Baird, the solicitor- general for England and Wales, told British newspaper The Guardian that Mirren's remarks were "dangerous" at a time when rape victims were being encouraged to come forward.
"We want women to report rape with the confidence that - albeit slowly - conviction rates are getting better. It really is a shame to cast doubt at the edges of what she thinks might not be rape," said Ms Baird.
Only 5 per cent of reported rapes in Britain end in a successful prosecution, making it one of the lowest conviction rates in the developed world.
