Student in rape claim ‘suffered breakdown in wake of attack’

A WOMAN who is suing a man cleared of raping her ‘really changed’ after the alleged attack and could not graduate with her student friends, a court heard yesterday.

The alleged victim, known as Miss M, claims Stephen Coxen raped her in St Andrews, Fife, after a Friday night out in September 2013.

Coxen, 23, from Bury, Lancashire, has already walked free from a High Court trial after the charge against him was found not proven. But Miss M is now seeking damages in a civil action at the Personal Injury Court in Edinburgh.

Yesterday, a friend of the 23-year-old woman gave evidence via video link from Boston, Massachusetts where she now lives. The 24-year-old witness, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told the court she became friends with the woman at the centre of the action (the pursuer) when they were students.

Recalling how she had seen Miss M cryative, ing the day after the alleged incident, the witness said: ‘She was in tears, red-faced, not really able to speak full sentences to me.’

She added: ‘Later on, not that day but in the weeks after, slowly she started to talk to us about what had kind of happened.’

Simon Di Rollo, QC, representing the pursuer, asked: ‘Did you notice a difference between before September 2013 and after?’

The woman replied: ‘Yes, absolutely. She used to be a really talk- bubbly, energised person and after that she was much more closed-off.

‘When she would talk about what happened that night – especially once I understood the severity – I could see it would really break her down in those moments. She couldn’t graduate with us because it changed her pathway.

‘She wasn’t able to continue her academics to the high standard that she holds. It really changed her and changed her path.’ Recalling the night of the alleged incident, the witness said Miss M had been ‘stumbling around’ after consuming alcohol.

Stephen O’Rourke, QC, representing Coxen – who contests the action – asked the witness about her claim that Miss M had gone home with someone.

She replied: ‘I definitely knew that she had gone home with someone and that it was a sexual encounter.’ Earlier, witness Dominic Hurst told the court how his friend Coxen had visited him in St Andrews that weekend in September 2013.

He said Coxen had told him ‘nothing out of the ordinary’ about what happened on that night.

Mr Hurst told the court he did not think his friend would do what is alleged against him.

The legal action, before Sheriff Robert Weir, continues.