London, Nov 17 Hollywood actress Dame Helen Mirren has been slammed for claiming that female jurors are less likely to sympathize with female rape victims, as they tend to think the woman was "asking for it".

The 'Hamlet' actress stated that the female jury is not adequately sympathetic towards women due to sexual jealousy, and a lawyer defending a man would want a jury constituting of women.

"In a rape case the courts would select as many women as they could for the jury, because women go against women. Whether in a deep-seated, animalistic way, going back billions of years, or a sense of tribal jealousy or just antagonism, I don't know," the Sun quoted Dame Helen Mirren, as saying.

"But other women on a rape case would say she was asking for it. The only reason I can think of is that they're sexually jealous," she added.

However, the female jury seems to be pretty offended with the actress' comments, as they find them to be utterly wrong.

Lawyer General Vera Baird QC slammed Dame Helen's claims as "ignorant and absurd".

"This is a vast generalization based on nothing," Ms Baird said.

"To put forward this false idea that some covert conspiracy exists in the justice system is very ignorant and totally and utterly wrong," she added. (ANI)