Treatment of my rape case was a disgrace, says victim
A FORMER student who won £80,000 in damages from a man who had been cleared of raping her says giving evidence at his trial was ‘the worst thing’ she ever had to do.
Stephen Coxen, 23, had been charged with raping the woman while she was drunk during freshers’ week at St Andrews University.
He denied the assault, alleged to have happened in September 2013, and a jury returned a not proven verdict after a High Court trial in November 2015.
The controversial verdict stops short of finding a defendant not guilty but acquits them – leaving them innocent under the law.
The woman, known as Miss M, later mounted an action through the civil courts, seeking £100,000 in damages and financial losses.
Yesterday she said she had been let down and branded the criminal trial ‘a disgrace’.
Earlier this month, Sheriff Robert Weir, QC ruled she should be paid £80,000 in damages, saying Mr Coxen took advantage of her when she was ‘incapable of giving meaningful consent’.
Speaking to the BBC yesterday, Miss M claimed Mr Coxen opened the door of her student accommodation with her keys after she dropped them.
She said she could not recall entering the property, adding: ‘The only thing I remember was being in my room. That’s when I came round to this person raping me.’
She said she had initially tried to ‘forget’ about the incident, but decided to call the police four months later.
She said: ‘It happened in September, freshers’ week and I didn’t report it until January.’
Miss M added: ‘Going through the trial and being on the stand was the worst thing I have ever done in my life.’
Speaking on the Victoria Derbyshire show on BBC 2, she was asked why her civil action, which had a lower burden of proof, had more expert witnesses and more evidence than the criminal trial.
She said: ‘Honestly, my own opinion is that I was let down in the criminal justice process.
‘I think it is shocking that someone – me – that’s been through the case, who has lived every moment of the incident, was not involved in any decisions, any input of witnesses, anything. I felt so let down by that.
‘From the disgrace of the criminal justice process and how the Crown represented my case, I think the Crown failed in that.’
She decided to launch a civil case after carrying out work with domestic abuse victims with a police force in England.
Miss M’s case followed a successful civil court action against footballers David Goodwillie and David Robertson.
The former Dundee United team-mates were ordered to pay £100,000 to Denise Clair.
She sued the pair at the Court of Session, claiming they raped her at a flat in Armadale, West Lothian, in January 2011.
Neither man was prosecuted in a criminal court and both insisted sex was consensual.