Cathy McCulloch, who has 34 years of legal experience in sexual assault, advises men not to have sex with women if they’ve had a single drink in a Mail Online article, as this may compromise their capacity to consent.
She wrote: “The law is simple. If a woman has had a drink, and says after sex she did not have the choice, freedom and capacity to consent, the man can be accused of rape. A man being drunk is no defence in law.The real issue is there is no legal definition of what is ‘too drunk’.
“The test is whether the drink affected a woman’s ability to make a free choice to have sex. Men don’t seem to realise this.”
It’s an issue that frequently crops up in rape cases, explained Sarah King, a solicitor at Stuart Miller, to The Independent.
“The reason for this is its capabilities of blurring the boundaries of consent.”
In a society where dating is often synonymous with drinking, one’s inhibitions are occasionally lowered where sex is concerned, and consent itself is a complex issue.