When Raith Rovers announced the incredible decision to sign David Goodwillie, it fell to a woman to cast the first stone. Of course it did.
Scottish crime writer Val McDermid, a lifelong supporter of the club, pulled her sponsorship over the signing of the striker,
“The thought of the rapist David Goodwillie running out on the pitch at Starks Park in a Raith Rovers shirt with my name on it makes me feel physically sick,” the author wrote in a string of pained social media posts.
The story of Goodwillie is well known. In a landmark civil case in 2017, he and former footballer David Robertson were ordered to pay damages of £100,000 to a woman they were found to have raped six years prior.
Goodwillie and Robertson, who did not face criminal charges, accepted they had sex with Denise Clair but insisted that the encounter was consensual. But Lord Armstrong ruled that because of Ms Clair’s “excessive intake of alcohol and, because her cognitive functioning and decision making processes were so impaired” that she “was incapable of giving meaningful consent, and that they each raped her”.
Read more: David Goodwillie has already cost shameful Raith Rovers more than his signing was ever worth
Just few months later, Goodwillie had signed for Clyde FC, a club who share Raith’s apparent belief that a good goal scoring record trumps the safety of women.
When rumours of Goodwillie’s move to Raith Rovers first surfaced in December last year, McDermid was quick in her condemnation. “Really? Is this the message that Raith Rovers want to send?” she said at the time.
Apparently it was. And, after almost a day of silence, a truly pathetic statement from the club surfaced in an attempt to justify the signing. “First and foremost, this was a football-related decision,” the club said. No-one was under the illusion that it was anything else. It certainly wasn’t a decision based on signing a player with outstanding morals.
“David is a proven goal scorer,” the statement said. He is also a proven rapist with two assault convictions.
And if that doesn’t matter to management at Raith Rovers, at least it matters to almost everyone else. Last night “Rape Rovers” was trending on UK Twitter.
Since the announcement on Monday night, support from those affiliated with the club has come thick and fast.
The captain of the club’s women’s team, Tyler Rattray, announced she was quitting yesterday. “After 10 long years playing for Raith, it’s gutting I have given up now because they have signed someone like this and I want nothing to do with it!” she tweeted.
At last count, the club had lost two directors, two sponsors, the women’s captain and coach and even the stadium announcer. Among them are women who have made personal sacrifices to show solidarity.
Meanwhile Raith Rovers have demonstrated that they do not care about the woman Goodwillie was found to have raped – or any other woman for that matter.
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