Ched Evans

[ChesterDave]

But he is not banned from playing football.

I have never claimed he is.

The issue for him is that people are against the idea of a convicted rapist playing for the club they support and/or advertise through.

If a club really wanted him then he would be kicking a ball now, but to date clubs are deciding that taking him on would not be worth the hassle it would cause.

Which is a right they should have (provided they express it through legitimate means and not make threats of violence and/or rape to the owners/employees and/or the families of the club that is considering to sign him and by further extension the sponsors of that club and those connected to any such companies).

It is not really something unique to football either. I am sure if a convicted rapist rocked up to Tesco looking for work, then people there would have to weigh up whether or not hiring him was going to be good or bad for their store.

Again, its not really the issue. I am not attacking clubs for not employing Evans (or business XYZ for not employing criminal ABC). My objection is to the suggestion that he should be banned by regulation from playing even if another club wishes to stick their neck out, take the flack that comes with going against public opinion, and employ him to play football. As I say in my post a couple of minutes ago we are not talking about a convicted paedophile applying to teach in a school or to work as a sports coach at the local leisure centre.

As things stand he can rightly apply to join any football club he likes, but no club is obliged to take him on. Maybe if he was a top class player some club would suddenly forget about his crime and hire him, but he is not a top player so the crime he was convicted of sees him treated pretty much how any other convicted rapist would be by a potential employer.

Marlon King was accepted back into football pretty quickly and was hardly top class. I suppose whether that is because of the popularity of a case through media coverage or an improved change in public perceptions of sexual violence towards women is a debate for another time and place.

[Doc_Piptorious]

I'd rather the responsibility of teaching children who is an appropriate role model fell to the parents than the governing body of a sport.

Parents should be teaching their sons to respect women (or even more appealingly their children to respect people regardless of gender).

Floyd Mayweather has 3 convictions for beating women and TV companies are falling over themselves to pay him £30m to show his fights. Leslie Grantham is a familiar face on TV and stage... And a convicted murderer. You could probably produce a list as long as your arm of musicians who have convictions that would see them firmly implanted in the "**** who should not be considered a role model" circle of the Venn diagram although those seem to have had a vastly different reaction to their pursuance of their career

He should have the same right as any convicted criminal of pursuing a career that is not at complete odds with his conviction - ie a teacher convicted of having sex with underage girls should not be allowed in the classroom, a barrister convicted or perjury; don't allow him to practice law.

Yes he should, and potential employers should have the same rights to not hire a convicted rapist if they feel the appointment would have an negative impact on their business.


If a club does decide to hire him, then he is back in football. If no club wants to hire him due to the potential negative impact he may have upon the club's finances then no pressure should be put on any club just because Evans wants to play football again.


As I said in my earlier post, he is a young man and time is on his side if he wants to learn new skills and try and make it in another line of work. If nothing else learning something new would give him the chance of having something else to fall back on other than football.

He was in a privileged position, financially compared to the average man on the street, prior to becoming a convicted rapist. He has served some time as part of being convicted, so now it is up to him to deal with the fall out from his own actions and deal with his new status.


I do agree with your point about Mayweather jnr., but wrong as it may be those seen as being more "valuable" will usually have a way found for them to continue to be a cash cow for themselves and their backers. As said in my earlier post, Evans is not such a talented footballer that his worth would see clubs take a risk on him despite his conviction, so as a result he gets to deal with a level of fall out similar to what any other convicted rapist would receive and to be blunt I do not see anything wrong with him receiving that.

[Venton]

Not really a similar comparison. Nobody banned miners from a closed pit working in another. If they had been banned from taking a job as a miner that was on offer then it would be a valid comparison

The point is that no-one has the right to do the job of their choosing, least of all Ched Evans.

[Venton]

I'd rather the responsibility of teaching children who is an appropriate role model fell to the parents than the governing body of a sport.

Parents should be teaching their sons to respect women (or even more appealingly their children to respect people regardless of gender).

Floyd Mayweather has 3 convictions for beating women and TV companies are falling over themselves to pay him £30m to show his fights. Leslie Grantham is a familiar face on TV and stage... And a convicted murderer. You could probably produce a list as long as your arm of musicians who have convictions that would see them firmly implanted in the "**** who should not be considered a role model" circle of the Venn diagram although those seem to have had a vastly different reaction to their pursuance of their career

He should have the same right as any convicted criminal of pursuing a career that is not at complete odds with his conviction - ie a teacher convicted of having sex with underage girls should not be allowed in the classroom, a barrister convicted or perjury; don't allow him to practice law.

I agree about the parents bit but most will tell you that outside influences have a huge effect on that. You can teach them what they like but when they get into the playground it's a different matter. I've never seen anyone hold up professional boxing as an aspirational vocation for kids though. It is what it is - people paying to see people brain each other. It's exciting because it's violent and gets the adrenalin surging. Football positions itself as being a national sport for everyone to enjoy including families, they have kids running out as mascots at the start of matches. Don't think we'll be seeing that in boxing any time soon. Maybe when they fight with pillows on their fists instead of gloves. Although that would obviously be a lost exciting.

You are right about the Venn diagram though, there are plenty of examples. I don't think it's a regulatory matter though - just a question of attitude. I still don't understand Oldham's, seems daft really. Why not just wait for the review?

[dom9]

Wait. Leslie Grantham is a convicted murderer? When did this happen?

[Chazza]

Wait. Leslie Grantham is a convicted murderer? When did this happen?

Wiki

Murder conviction[edit]
On 3 December 1966 he attempted to rob a taxi driver, Felix Reese, in Osnabrück, Lower Saxony, West Germany. A struggle between Grantham and the driver followed, and Reese died from a gunshot wound to the head.[6][7][8] In his statement to the police following his arrest, Grantham claimed that he did not know the gun was loaded and it had gone off during the struggle. He was subsequently convicted of murder.

Grantham was sentenced to life imprisonment at his trial in 1967. Although he had committed the murder in West Germany, he served the entirety of his imprisonment in various British prisons. This was because soldiers and officers convicted of any criminal offence that warrants a sentence of over two years are automatically transferred to Her Majesty's Prison Service, since they are also automatically dishonourably discharged. Grantham was released in 1977, having served 10 years. While he was in Leyhill Prison, he acted in several plays for inmates and members of the public, and edited the prison newspaper. He was encouraged to get more involved in acting professionally by disgraced Labour Party politician T. Dan Smith, who had also been an inmate at Leyhill. He also met actress Louise Jameson during her visit to Leyhill in the mid-1970s; she had also encouraged him to take up acting and he became good friends with her.[9]

[dom9]

Well I never.

[Chazza]

Ched Evans’s ‘true friend and supporter’ abused victim of rape
• Ciaran Goggins made derogatory comments about woman
• Ched Evans’s website distances itself from protagonist
• Evans faces 14 months out of football over pending legal challenge

A “true friend and supporter” of Ched Evans made abusive comments about the convicted rapist’s victim and posted a link to a website that unlawfully names her, the Guardian can reveal.

Ciaran Goggins’ picture was posted in a gallery of photographs on the website set up by Evans’s family and friends to maintain the former Manchester City, Sheffield United and Wales striker’s innocence following his conviction in April 2012 and five-year prison sentence. Evans served half that term and, having been released on licence, is now looking to return to football. Goggins tweeted during last week’s furore over Oldham Athletic’s ultimately cancelled effort to sign Evans: “I am proud to be the only non-blood relative on #justiceforched site.”

From the same Twitter account, using the Oldham Athletic initials, @oafc4 – which has since become another of many accounts which Goggins has had suspended – he tweeted the link to a website which on 22 December named Evans’s rape victim. As a victim of a sex offence the woman, who was 19 at the time, is legally entitled to lifelong anonymity, but she has been repeatedly named on social media. Her father has said she has been forced to change identity five times and is now living “on the run”.

The Evans website displayed a picture of Goggins, tagged “a True Friend and Supporter” at an Amnesty International conference, wearing a T-shirt picturing a smiling Evans and the logo “Ched Evans is innocent”. It was on the website within a gallery of photographs showing Evans as a family man, with babies, a dog, climbing a mountain, and playing football.

The website took down the picture of Goggins last Wednesday, 8 January. A day later, after the collapse of the proposed Oldham deal, Evans posted a statement on the website with his first words of contrition to the victim and first condemnation of the online abuse that has been aimed at her ever since his conviction in April 2012.

“It has been claimed that those using social media in an abusive and vindictive way towards this woman are supporters of mine,” the statement said. “I wish to make it clear that these people are not my supporters and I condemn their actions entirely.”

The website itself, which since 2012 has set out a partial account of Evans’s trial and is itself abusive of the victim, is currently under investigation by the Attorney General, whose office is considering whether it is in contempt of court.

In 2012 Goggins was one of 19 people arrested and questioned by North Wales police on suspicion of naming Evans’s victim on social media. Ten were subsequently charged and convicted, including Gemma Thomas, Evans’ cousin. No charges were brought against Goggins, who is resident in Ireland. He told the Guardian that he was questioned for 72 hours, his ex-girlfriend’s computer and his UK and Ireland mobile phones were seized and searched, but he was released without charge.

In November 2014 Goggins contributed to two online discussions about Evans’s proposed, then cancelled, return for Sheffield United, making derogatory comments and allegations about Evans’s victim. Throughout this time his picture was up on the Ched Evans website as “a True Friend and Supporter.”

Asked by the Guardian about these comments, Goggins stood by them, and always wrote the word “victim” in quotation marks. He contributes widely on social media alleging that a significant number of rape claims made by women are false. In November, Goggins sent abusive tweets to “Jean Hatchet”, the feminist campaigner who started the petitions against Evans being signed by Sheffield United and Oldham.

His Twitter accounts have repeatedly been suspended, including @oafc4, which results in all the tweets being deleted. His most recent, @bhafc6, was suspended on Wednesday. Goggins said he did not know why Twitter is doing this. The company did not respond to a request for it to explain. Goggins says that he is not the author of the blog naming the victim, adding that it is not an offence to link to a website, only to a specific reference on it.

The Guardian asked those responsible for the Ched Evans website about the nature of their “true” friendship with Goggins and his support. They said he was a “vocal” supporter of Evans’s claim to have been wrongly convicted, and they only “very recently” became aware of his social media comments.

“Up until we were aware of his derogatory comments last week, we viewed him as a conscientious supporter of Ched,” a spokesperson said. “When we understood some of the tweets were totally unreasonable and unpalatable his image was removed from the site.

“To be clear we have now cut all communication with Ciaran Goggins or anyone who purports to be Ciaran Goggins and will not interact with anyone who uses social media to attack anyone.”

Amnesty International Ireland disowned the picture of Goggins, saying that he did attend their 2013 annual conference, but his photograph in front of the Amnesty logo was taken without its “knowledge, permission or endorsement”. The organisation said if it had known it was being used on the Ched Evans website it would have “sought its withdrawal” because it has “no interest or involvement” in his case.

Goggins told the Guardian that when the photograph was taken of him, all the walls had Amnesty images as a backdrop. He declined to comment on the Evans website taking down his picture, but maintained he is “a fully committed supporter” of the “Justice for Ched” campaign, and that in 2013 the Evans website had emailed him, calling him a “hero”. Evans’s supporters running the website did not respond to a question asking what Goggins had done to merit being called a hero.

Evans was convicted of rape in April 2012, having gone to the Premier Inn in Rhyl after receiving a text from his friend, Clayton McDonald, to the effect: “I’ve got a bird.” Evans persuaded the hotel night porter to let him into the room; when he went in McDonald and the girl were having sex, and she was asked if Evans could “join in”. Evans said, and still maintains, she consented; the woman said from the beginning she was drunk and had no memory of that part of the night.

Evans left after he had sex with her, by the fire exit. He and McDonald went to sleep at Evans’s family home, leaving the young woman in the hotel room that he had booked. She had lost her bag and mobile phone and said she woke up not knowing how she had got there.

Evans was refused leave to appeal against his conviction on the basis that the judge’s summing up was correct, then lost an appeal against that decision on 6 November 2012. He is currently out on licence having been released from prison in October. His solicitor, Shaun Draycott, has applied to the Criminal Cases Review Commission with evidence not heard in the trial, which he argues gives Evans a strong chance of having his conviction overturned. The CCRC is expected to decide by the autumn whether the evidence is sufficient to suggest the jury might have reached a different verdict, and justify referring the conviction to the Court of Appeal.

Oldham decided last week not to sign Evans following sponsors’ pledges to end their association with the club, and opposition from Oldham council. After that, Evans issued his statement, which included an apology for “the effect that that night in Rhyl has had on many people, especially the woman concerned”.

Asked if his condemnation of social media attacks on the young woman included those by Thomas and Goggins, the Evans website replied: “Ched does not in any way support the negative use of social media by anyone whether they claim to be his friends or supporters or not.”

The Attorney General’s investigation of the website follows complaints by the victim’s father, including that CCTV footage asking the public to “judge for yourself” if the victim was drunk is insufficiently blurred and makes her identifiable. In its account of the facts, the website makes derogatory allegations against the victim that were not heard in court.

Asked about this, and whether Evans’ own website is “abusive and vindictive” towards the woman, those responsible replied: “Ched’s website was designed by family and friends as a method to educate the public in the facts of this case which largely were not reported in the media and some which were not even heard in court. The website has since its construction been checked over to ensure it is legal and ethical.”

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/jan/15/ched-evans-friend-victim

[RichC]

Ched Evans submits 'fresh evidence' in hope of seeing rape conviction overturned

Former Sheffield United footballer Ched Evans has submitted “fresh evidence” which he hopes will get his rape conviction overturned.

The submission to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) was made on Evans’ behalf on Friday, according to a statement on his website which claims the details “strengthen” his case.

An appeal application to the CCRC was originally submitted on 15 July 2014

Evans, 26, was convicted of raping a 19-year-old woman in a hotel in Rhyl in April 2012. He was released from prison last year after he served half of his five year sentence. He remains on licence.

The statement on his website reads: “On Friday 23rd January 2015 further detailed submissions - supported by previously unavailable fresh evidence that we believe strengthens Ched's application - were lodged with the Commission.”

The fresh appeal against Evan’s conviction comes after a three judges rejected a previous bid at the Court of Appeal in 2012.

Following his release, Evans has made attempts to restart his career as a professional footballer, but has failed in the face of a huge public outcry.

Both Sheffield United and more recently Oldham Athletic dropped plans to sign him.

The footballer maintains that he is innocent.

Additional reporting by PA

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/ched-evans-submits-fresh-evidence-in-hope-of-seeing-rape-conviction-overturned-10009065.html

[Joey Jones]

I wonder what this 'fresh evidence' is.

[Phoenix07]

Rape conviction quashed, and retrial ordered by the High Court.

[Scratch]

I wonder what this 'fresh evidence' is.

Rape conviction quashed, and retrial ordered by the High Court.

Must be pretty convincing evidence if it is enough to require a retrial, I'd assume?

[Gibbo]

I might be misunderstanding this but what would he be retrialed on? The same case with the new evidence?

[Muddled]

Pretty much, yeah.

He'll be retried on the allegation of rape with the new evidence put forward. I was reading that his case has been referred to the Court of Appeal which investigate possible miscarriages of justice on the back of the new evidence submitted; that to me would suggest the new evidence is huge.

[Leyton388]

The same case, however in the original trial some of the evidence the defence had was not allowed to be heard and I'm assuming it is this evidence that the appeals judges have taken into account.