REUTERS

Britain's Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke delivers his keynote speech during the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham on October 5, 2010.

Most women agree that some rapes are more serious than others, UK Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke insisted on Monday.

The gaffe-prone Justice Secretary horrified colleagues by reigniting the controversy over his suggestion that only attacks by strangers constitute “proper” sex crimes.

Clarke was forced to apologise earlier this year after drawing crude distinctions between different types of sex attack as he tried to defend now-abandoned plans for shorter jail terms for rapists.

He said a “serious rape” involved “violence and an unwilling woman”. But on Monday, appearing on Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour, the Justice Secretary mounted a determined defence of his comments.

“My remarks about rape were eminently sensible and agreed to by most women I knew,” Clarke said. “There was a mass hysteria set off by a rather entertaining range of parodies about what I was supposed to have said. The basic theme I was on was that rape is always a serious crime but some rapes are more serious than others.

“The circumstances of some are deeply shocking - others are shocking - and that is why we have a range of tariffs for it. That was parodied in dozens of different ways in the typical hoo-ha of the next two to three days.”

Earlier this year, the Justice Secretary prompted a storm of criticism as he tried to defend proposals to encourage early guilty pleas by offering 50 per cent sentencing discounts for those who admit wrongdoing at the earliest stage.

Eventually, Downing Street stepped in to overrule Clarke and block the idea.

The Justice Secretary suggested there were differences between “serious”, “proper”, “forcible”, and “date rape”, as well as consensual sex with underage girls.

Challenged that “rape is rape”, whatever the circumstances, the Justice Secretary replied: “No it’s not.” Date rapes, Clarke insisted, “vary extraordinarily from one to another”. In fact, the law makes no distinction between so-called date rapes or attacks by strangers.

In subsequent appearances, he said a “classic” rape was when a stranger grabbed an “unwilling” woman from the street and should draw a sentence of “ten years plus”.

The Justice Secretary also suggested rape had been singled out in discussion of plea bargaining “mainly to add a bit of sexual excitement to the headlines”.

Vivienne Haynes, of the Women’s Resource Centre, said: “I would like to know what evidence Kenneth Clarke has for his claim that most women agree there are serious and non-serious rapes.

“It’s very surprising, given that he apologised for these remarks, that he is now reverting to what he originally said. To grade rapes as serious and less serious is taking us away from the fundamental point, which is that rape is unacceptable, abhorrent and damages individuals, families and communities, whatever the circumstances.”

A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: “As the Justice Secretary made clear today, rape is always a serious crime and there is rightly a range of sentences available to punish those who commit this horrific offence.

“Rape is a devastating crime, with appalling consequences for victims, and deserves to be punished.”

Clarke’s defence of his remarks will be unwelcome in Downing Street, which is concerned at a collapse in support for the Coalition among women. - Daily Mail