A High Court judge has warned that if internet drinking contests continue they will result in a 'tsunami of homicide and rape prosecutions' before his court.

Mr. Justice Paul Carney was speaking as he was sentencing a Waterford man (38) who, after drinking six to seven pints of beer, raped an acquaintance having offered her a lift home from their local nightclub.

The married father of two who pleaded guilty to rape in a wooded area outside a Waterford town in February 2011 received an eight year sentence with the final three years suspended.

Mr. Justice Carney said it was the latest case in a long line in which young men, with no previous convictions, take a quantity of drink they are not used to and end up the following morning facing responsibility for a homicide or a rape.

"It's a male phenomenon...if the current internet drinking contest takes hold, it is going to result in a tsunami of homicide and rape prosecutions coming before this court" the Judge said.

The woman stated in her victim impact report that for the first few weeks after the rape she could not leave the house because she was afraid of meeting the man.

She was afraid when in her home alone and was terrified of any noise. She said she began locking her bedroom door at night.

She added that in some ways her life will never be the same again. She has attended counselling and "finds it extremely hard to trust people".