‘I thought that I was going to die during rape ordeal’
A FORMER student suing the man she claims raped her during Freshers’ Week told a court she thought she was going to die during the attack.
The woman said she has suffered panics, flashbacks and night terrors, for which she has been prescribed medication, since the alleged assault in 2013.
The 23-year-old woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said she became reclusive and that her drinking ‘spiralled out of control’ in an attempt to block out the memories.
The landmark legal action is the first time a person has been sued in a Scottish civil court following their acquittal in a criminal court.
The woman, identified only as Miss M, said she was sexually assaulted during St Andrews University Freshers’ Week by Stephen Coxen.
Mr Coxen, 23, has already walked free from a High Court trial after the rape charge against him was found not proven.
Miss M, who claims Mr Coxen raped her and injured her tongue, is suing him in Edinburgh’s Personal Injury Court for damages and financial losses.
Representing Miss M, Simon Di Rollo, QC, asked her yesterday about an earlier statement she had made in which she said she ‘thought that was it’ during the alleged attack.
She said: ‘I think it was a reference to the next day as well. I thought that was it... I was so afraid, I suppose.
‘I didn’t know how it was going to end, I suppose. I was just so afraid, I didn’t know what was going to happen next.’
Pressed to explain what she had meant by the phrase, she replied: ‘I thought I was going to die.’
Miss M listed a variety of drugs she said she has been prescribed, including to help with anxiety and depression.
She told the court: ‘One, like a beta-blocker, stops when I panic. I can feel the heart rate in my neck. It stops me panicking too much if I’m having flashbacks or triggers.’
She also described taking another tablet ‘because the night terrors have been getting quite bad now. I’d wake up in the night and feel I couldn’t breathe’.
She also said that she has been known to sleepwalk, adding: ‘I don’t sleep very well, I often wake up. Maybe once a week I wake up in a panic.’
The woman told how her memories of the events return to her and that she finds it quite difficult to talk about them.
She said her friends would describe her as ‘reclusive’ and that they became concerned about her drinking.
‘It got quite bad. My friends were quite worried about my level of drinking. It sort of spiralled out of control,’ she told Sheriff Robert Weir, QC.
On Tuesday, Miss M described waking up to find a stranger having sex with her after a night out.
The court heard she had been drinking alcohol earlier in the evening and that her memory was blank for parts of it.
Questioned yesterday by Stephen O’Rourke, QC – representing Mr Coxen, who is contesting the action – she agreed that she had consumed significantly more alcohol that night than she would have been used to.
But asked if she might have ‘overstated’ the amount she had consumed, she replied: ‘I disagree with that.’
The case continues.