SOLDIER CLEARED OF RAPING ME MUST PAY £100K DAMAGES
Sheriff grants alleged victim payout in civil case after not proven verdict in criminal trial
SOLDIER Sean Diamond has been ordered to pay £100,000 damages to the woman he was cleared of raping.
Last night his alleged victim said: “I feel I have finally got justice.”
A SOLDIER cleared of rape has been ordered to pay his alleged victim more than £100,000 in a landmark civil case.
The case against Sean Diamond is the first time in almost a century a woman has been awarded damages in a civil action in Scotland after an unsuccessful rape prosecution.
The 24-year-old stood trial for allegedly raping a woman in a Dundee flat while she slept but a jury found the case not proven at Edinburgh High Court.
The woman who made the allegation launched a civil action for damages – and that was granted by a sheriff after the claim was not defended by Diamond.
Last night, the alleged victim said she felt the civil case had brought her justice.
She said: “I feel I’ve finally got justice. The trial coming out with the verdict of not proven was one of the most heartbreaking things I’ve experienced.
“I took the oath. I told the truth and I was belittled by his counsel but this result has been a massive relief. I feel like a huge weight has been lifted.”
She said the trial in October last year was a “horrendous” ordeal but she chose not to take the option of a screen to hide her face during evidence.
“I felt I had nothing to hide from. I had done everything I could and I wanted to show I was strong and face Diamond in the dock,” she added.
The prosecution claimed Diamond had continued the alleged rape after the women had woken up by holding her down, pushing her head on to a sofa, making her unconscious.
Diamond denied carrying out the attack on July 15, 2015, when he was a serving soldier based at Leuchars. When the civil case was launched, he was serving with the Queen’s Dragoon Guards based at Robertson Barracks, Dereham in Norfolk.
The woman said she was “devastated” when she was told the not proven verdict by phone following a four day trial.
She said: “I felt so let down by the system. I know the police had done everything they could, they were so supportive. But the jury and the Crown let me down. I didn’t believe that he should have been able to get up and walk free and live a normal life. I found that heartbreaking.”
She said she was so devastated by her ordeal that she was diagnosed with post traumatic stress and she attempted suicide in March 2016.
“My world was turned upside down. I had to see a psychologist and tried to kill myself because there was no reason to go on.” She added that she had to take time off work and retreated from life, having been a bubbly, sociable character.
She put on three stone in weight, reasoning she would be safe if she was unattractive.
She said: “My life was ruined. I was a broken person. I felt like a prisoner inside my own head.
“I turned from being a person who had no fear to someone who was too scared to go out. I didn’t even want to socialise with friends. I felt nowhere was safe any more. I lived in fear without the physical or mental strength to protect myself.
“Without the support of my family and friends, I don’t think I would have come out the other side. I will never be the person I was. I’m a lot better now but it has changed me completely as a person.”
The woman said the civil action was the only way she could regain some power over her life, adding: “I felt I needed to do it for myself and other women to show it is possible.”
She filed the civil action in June this year but Diamond didn’t defend it and a sheriff, without hearing any evidence, issued a decree for payment of £100,000 plus interest in July this year.
The woman said: “This was never about money. It was always about justice.”