(Reuters) – Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon urged the Scottish Professional Football League to take action over Raith Rovers’ signing of striker David Goodwillie, who in 2017 was ruled in a civil case to have raped a woman along with a former team mate.
Goodwillie and former Dundee United team mate David Robertson were ruled by a civil court judge to have raped a woman after a night out in 2011 and ordered to pay her 100,000 pounds ($135,590) damages.
No criminal case was ever brought against Goodwillie or Robertson after the Crown Office deemed there to be insufficient evidence. He maintains his innocence, saying they had consensual sex.
“It would be appropriate for the SPFL to take action,” Sturgeon said on Wednesday. “We have to recognise footballers are role models and young boys and girls look up to footballers so there is a responsibility on football clubs to make sure those role models are positive.
“We are talking about a football player who in a civil court was found to have raped a woman, who as far as I’m aware, has never shown any remorse or reflection and I think that sends a really damaging message.
“I think it tells us that while we talk about the importance of tackling sexual violence and abuse of women, we have an awful long way to go to make zero tolerance of sexual violence as a reality.”
Crime writer Val McDermid withdrew her sponsorship of the Scottish Championship club following its decision to sign Goodwillie, while Raith’s women’s team captain Tyler Rattray also quit the club in protest.
Raith said on Tuesday that the club said signing Goodwillie was “first and foremost… a football related decision”.
($1 = 0.7375 pounds)
(Reporting by Manasi Pathak in Bengaluru; Editing by Christian Radnedge)
