A woman was deemed by a court to be too unattractive and too masculine to be raped, but the ruling left the Supreme Court unimpressed and it ordered the appeal to be reheard.

It happened in Italy, after a Peruvian 22-year-old woman in 2015 said she was raped by a young man while his friend kept watch, La Repubblica reported yesterday.

Doctors found injuries consistent with sexual assault as well as an amount of benzodiazepines, which is used as a “date rape” drug in the victim’s blood.

Two men were arrested and in July 2016 they were found guilty, with a five-year term in jail given to the man who committed the rape, and a three-year term to his accomplice.

The two file and appeal, and in November 2017 the Court of Appeal, made up of three women judges, overturns the judgment because if does not consider the victim’s statement as being credible.

According to the judges, who referred to the victim as being “cunning”, is too masculine and unattractive to be raped, "as the photograph (of the victim) confirms". They concluded that it could not be excluded that it was the woman who organised the night’s revels, and then claimed rape.

The Supreme Court, however, was not impressed by Court of Appeals hypothetical reconstruction, ordering that the appeal be held again because of inconsistencies in its reasoning.