A judge has thrown out a £100,000 compensation case brought by a woman who accused a former police officer of rape. Lady Poole said the woman’s legal action was for too much money and had been lodged too late.
In addition to rejecting the woman’s claim the judge ordered that the retired officer’s legal expenses should be paid by the Scottish Legal Aid Board. Ex-detective sergeant Kevin McKeown from Maybole, South Ayrshire, walked free from Glasgow High Court in 2021 after he was acquitted of raping the woman while she was asleep six years earlier.
He had been accused of carrying out the attack at a property in the town and indecently assaulting another woman, but a jury found both charges ‘not proven’. The alleged rape victim, then aged 47, claimed in evidence that Mr McKeown had raped her after she dozed off under the influence of drink and prescription drugs.
Another 53-year-old woman claimed that Mr McKeown had groped her sexually while she was asleep at a house party. The 58-year-old cop, who earned a long service and good conduct medal for his police service, denied the allegations and told jurors that he had never even met the indecent assault woman.
The woman who made the rape claim raised a personal injuries action at the Court of Session in Edinburgh in her attempt to make Mr McKeown pay. The retired policeman represented himself in the civil case, with the lay assistance of his daughter.
After hearing evidence from both sides, Judge Lady Poole ruled that the case should be dismissed because it had been raised after the three-year period allowed by law had expired. In addition, she said, the court was not satisfied on a balance of probabilities that the defender had raped the pursuer on 29 January 1995, so the pursuer’s claim failed.
Had the action not been time-barred, and had liability been established, she said. the court would have awarded £50,000 compensation, because the £100,000 sought by the woman was “overstated”.
She added that the evidence of the second woman, who alleged indecent assault, was inadmissible as well as being neither credible nor reliable. Both parties invited the court to find the Scottish Legal Aid Board, which was funding the pursuer, liable for expenses.
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