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St Salvator’s Quadrangle, University of St Andrews.
The rape is alleged to have occurred during freshers’ week at the University of St Andrews in 2013. Photograph: University of St Andrews
The rape is alleged to have occurred during freshers’ week at the University of St Andrews in 2013. Photograph: University of St Andrews

Woman sues man acquitted of rape in Scottish court trial

This article is more than 6 years old

Former student sues Stephen Coxen for damages two years after jury found case against him not proven

A former university student in Scotland is suing her alleged rapist for £100,000 in damages after he walked free following a high court trial two years ago.

Stephen Coxen, 23, from Bury in Lancashire, was charged with raping the then student at her flat while she was drunk and stealing her phone during freshers’ week at the University of St Andrews in September 2013.

Coxen denied the charges and after a high court trial in November 2015, during which the phone theft charge was dropped, a jury found the case against him not proven. A uniquely Scottish verdict, it acquits the accused but stops short of finding them not guilty, leaving them innocent in the eyes of the law.

In a legal first after an unsuccessful rape prosecution in Scotland, the woman, known as Miss M, has mounted an action through the civil courts, seeking just under £100,000 in damages and financial losses.

Miss M accuses Coxen of raping her and injuring her tongue, and has been granted funding to cover her costs by the Scottish Legal Aid Board. The case is due to start in March at the sheriff court in Edinburgh, and set to last a week.

It follows a successful civil court action for rape last year against two Scottish footballers, David Goodwillie and David Robertson. A woman called Denise Clair, who had waived her anonymity, alleged they raped her in a flat in West Lothian.

The Crown Office, which oversees prosecutions in Scotland, had chosen not to prosecute Clair’s attackers but the judge in the civil court found the rapes had happened and in January 2017 awarded her £100,000 damages from the men.

They insisted she had consented to intercourse but in November three judges threw out their appeal.

Sandy Brindlay, the director of Rape Crisis Scotland, said the number of women asking about using civil actions had jumped significantly since Clair’s win.

Civil actions have been used in a handful of cases in England but have been very rare in Scotland: the last known Scottish civil action in a rape case is believed to have been in 1926.

Brindley said Miss M’s action was an important test case because if it succeeded it could offer rape complainants an alternative to the criminal system. Nearly 50% of rape and attempted rape cases in Scotland end in acquittals, more than in any other category of cases, and 20% end in a not proven verdict.

“Reporting rape takes a lot of courage. It can be a very difficult process and in a significant majority of criminal cases it doesn’t reach court, or doesn’t result in a conviction,” she said.

Miss M’s case was taken to court through the Scottish Women’s Rights Centre, set up to help women affected by gender-based violence, and backed by the Scottish Legal Aid Board and Rape Crisis Scotland.

Coxen’s lawyers, Thorley Stephenson in Edinburgh, confirmed he would be defending the action but declined to comment further.

Miss M alleges she was raped after going to a friend’s house-warming party where she drank champagne and vodka. She then went with friends to the students’ union and a nightclub. She continued drinking and her friends left.

Miss M says she was quite drunk by then and alleges Coxen, whom she had not met before, accompanied her to her flat. When they arrived, she alleges he forced his way into the property where he subjected her to a prolonged and violent sexual attack.

She reported having long blackouts during the alleged attack, which she said left her with an injury to her tongue which needed surgery, a chronic form of post-traumatic stress disorder and depression.

Miss M said that contributed to her taking a year off university and then retaking her second year, increasing her living costs. She reported the alleged attack four months after it happened.

She told the Guardian she had decided to mount the civil action in 2016, before the Clair case became public knowledge, after discovering civil courts provided potential redress for rape claims.

Miss M had done an internship with a police force in England, where she helped domestic abuse victims. That led her to decide she did not want to drop the case after the not proven decision.

“I feel this is something I can do,” she said. “I’m not just going to sit down because someone else has told me: ‘You can be quiet now, the case was not proven.’”

She is being supported by St Andrew’s University, whose principal, Sally Mapstone, has met her several times to discuss her case.

“We have offered Miss M practical and pastoral support while she pursues a difficult case which has a major bearing on her general wellbeing and her future,” a university spokesman said.

In Scotland, prosecutors need two independent pieces of evidence to corroborate an allegation, which can make it harder to prove sexual assaults and rapes that take place without witnesses, particularly if, as in many cases, the attack is not reported immediately.

Scotland uses juries of 15 people who have three verdicts available: one of guilty and two of acquittal – not proven or not guilty. In rape cases, the not proven option increases the chances a prosecution will fail. A civil case, however, requires a lower standard of proof, with a judge sitting without a jury making a decision on the balance of probabilities.

This article was amended on 17 January 2018. An earlier version said that the civil case would be heard by the court of session when the sheriff court was meant.

More on this story

More on this story

  • Scottish study prompts fresh call for abolition of not proven verdict

  • Scottish civil court rules that acquitted man did rape student

  • Man being sued for damages denies raping St Andrews student

  • Man accused of raping St Andrews student kept her phone, court hears

  • Woman suing over alleged rape tells court she felt she would die

  • Man acquitted of rape sued by accuser for £100,000 in damages

  • Scotland declines to introduce misogynistic harassment law

  • Scotland to debate policy that may force rape victims to testify

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