A rape victim has been given the green light for the first private criminal prosecution in Scotland for more than 40 years.
The Scottish Government have approved a legal aid application by Denise Clair to help fund her case against former Scottish international footballer David Goodwillie.
A civil court ruled in 2017 that Goodwillie, who now plays for West of Scotland League side Glasgow United, raped Ms Clair, but no court proceedings have ever been brought against him.
Ms Clair, who waived her right to anonymity, is seeking a rare private prosecution, where an individual seeks to prosecute an individual rather than the Crown.
The Scottish Government announced yesterday that her long running legal aid application had been granted.
The last private prosecution in Scotland was in 1982 at the High Court in Edinburgh when three men stood trial for the rape of a Glasgow woman known as Carol X.
Ms Clair told The Sunday Post: ‘I am elated that after all these years, I can finally begin the journey to proper justice.
‘I have waited all this time to have the facts of this case tested in criminal court.
‘I’m determined to see this journey to the bitter end for me and every other rape victim let down by our criminal justice system.’
A spokesman for the Scottish Government added: ‘This has been a particularly unique and complex case which required detailed consideration.
‘After careful assessment ministers have decided to award legal aid in this case.’
The Scottish Government told Ms Clair on Friday that her case was ‘exceptional’ and now meets the requirements for legal aid funding, although they have offered just £2,500.
Ms Clair was allegedly targeted by Goodwillie while on a night out in Armadale, West Lothian, in 2011.
A decision was taken the following year by the then Lord Advocate, Frank Mulholland, not to prosecute Goodwillie.
Ms Clair claims to remember nothing of the night of the attack after accepting a drink from him and another player.
She says she awoke the next day, naked, alone and locked in a strange flat in Armadale and called the police.
Though the rape charges were dropped in 2012, Ms Clair was successful in the country’s first ever civil action for rape five years later.
Lord Armstrong ruled that Goodwillie was a rapist and awarded her £100,000.
However the football star was unable to pay any of the compensation after being declared bankrupt in 2019.
The private prosecution in the Carol X case was one of only two to succeed in Scotland in the 20th century. The other involved a fraud case in 1905.
Carol was returning home when three teenagers dragged her into a disused metal storage container on wasteground in Davaar Street, Barrowfield, in October,1980.
She was repeatedly raped and then slashed with a razor, leaving her needing more than 150 stitches.
The Crown Office however caused public outrage by dropping the charges the following year leading to the resignation of then Solicitor General Sir Nicholas Fairbairn.
The mother-of-three then brought a ground breaking private prosecution through her solicitor Ross Harper.
The application was granted on April,1982, having been heard by three judges at the High Court in Edinburgh.
It led to Joseph Sweeney, then 18, and his two 16-year-old accomplices being put on trial at the High Court in Edinburgh the following month.
Sweeney got 12 years for rape and assault, while the two other accused, one his brother, were convicted of indecent assault.
The Carol X case also prompted the families of six victims of the Glasgow bin lorry crash to attempt their own private prosecution against driver Harry Clarke in 2016.
The Crown Office had decided not to charge Clarke over the deaths.
They claimed there was insufficient evidence he had broken the law when he lost control of his vehicle in December 2014.
Two years later three judges refused the families request for a private prosecution at the High Court in Edinburgh.
Now the Scottish Government have ruled it is in the public interest for Denise Clair to seek a private criminal prosecution.