Landmark case as woman sues man who was acquitted of raping her
● ‘Miss M’ weeps in court while recalling incident after St Andrews student party
A woman who is suing the man she claims raped her for £100,000 in a landmark legal action wept in court yesterday as she recalled the alleged attack.
The woman, who can only be identified as Miss M, said she was sexually assaulted after returning from a night out to her home in St Andrews, Fife, in September 2013.
She told Edinburgh Sheriff Court yesterday how she had spent the evening drinking at a student party before going on to a nightclub.
Miss M, 23, told the court that during the evening she drank four cans of cider, a bottle of rosé wine, a bottle of champagne and three glasses of sparkling wine which were mixed with vodka.
She told Sheriff Robert Weir QC that she awoke in her bed to find a man she did not know having sex with her.
She said the man still continued to have sex with her when she was crying.
Miss M also told the court the man forced her to perform a sex act on him and that he only stopped when he noticed blood on the woman’s bed.
She said: “I was lying on my bed when I came around. I sort of was aware what going on from the off, in the sense that I didn’t have any clothes on. I was upset.
“Within a second I realised there was somebody on top of me. I suppose that person was having sex with me.
“I didn’t say anything. I couldn’t shout out, I couldn’t say anything.
“The person was naked as well. I felt sick. I was lying down on my back. I found it difficult to breathe.”
Miss M was giving evidence on the first day of an action which she has brought to court against Stephen Coxen, 23, from Bury, Lancashire.
She has taken Mr Coxen to court to seek damages from him as a consequence of what happened in the high court two years ago.
Mr Coxen stood trial on charges of raping the woman but walked free after the jury returned a not proven verdict.
In a legal first after an unsuccessful rape prosecution in Scotland, the woman has mounted an action through the civil courts seeking just under £100,000 in damages and financial losses.
Miss M accuses Mr Coxen of raping her and injuring her tongue, and has been granted funding to cover her costs by the Scottish Legal Aid Board.
Yesterday, Miss M told the court how the attack happened while she was a student at St Andrews University.
The woman told the court that the attack happened during Freshers Week 2013, after she attended a party at a friend’s flat. Mr Coxen contests the action.
The hearing continues.