A TELEVISION programme trivialises rape, says a Huddersfield-based group.

Kirklees Rape and Sexual Abuse Counselling Centre has attacked BBC2's The Verdict.

The service has called for greater realism in programmes dealing with rape and other violence against women.

The reality TV show, which finishes tonight, centres on the deliberations of a celebrity jury trying two men on a rape charge.

The jurors include disgraced politician Jeffrey Archer, former MP Michael Portillo, ex-international footballer Stan Collymore and actresses Honor Blackman, Patsy Palmer and Jennifer Ellison.

But Deborah Parr, a counsellor at the Huddersfield centre, said: "This is reality television that misses most of the reality of rape.

"For example, the fact that most women are raped by people they know or that systematic domestic violence is also often part of the case.

"Rape is rarely dealt with at any length by broadcasters and The Verdict is a missed opportunity to show the facts about it."

The End Violence Against Women campaign wants the Government to reform the way rape cases are investigated, brought to trial and handled in court.

Ms Parr added: "With funding for centres like ours under threat, the reality is that women in Kirklees can have little confidence that the services will be out there if the worst did ever happen to them.

"We need to see guaranteed funding for vital local services that deal with the reality of rape day in, day out."

The 12 `jurors' on TV are sitting in judgement in a four-day trial in a real courtroom, presided over by a real judge, with real barristers prosecuting and defending.

The show began on Monday.

The focus has been on the jury room, with cameras observing how a jury reaches its verdict.

The case features the rape trial of an internationally famous footballer, Damien Scott, and his friend, James Greer.

In the weeks leading up to the case the actors playing them experienced what is like to be arrested, interviewed under caution by real policemen and examined by real forensic experts.

The trial is totally unscripted, so that when the witnesses appear in the witness box they give evidence about experiences that to them, to the jury and to viewers will seem all too real.