Raith Committing Hari Kiri

Really done themselves in with signing David Goodwillie, just reading through twitter and some forums and could really disappear down the rabbit hole for the rest of the day if i didn't get off them after half an hour.

Such a shambles, board members resigning, the captain of the women's team walking away, life long fans such as Val McDermid the crime novelist saying she'll never go to another game and has cancelled sponsorship and other deals she does with them. What the hell were they thinking?

Looks as if the main driving force for signing him was McGlynn too, ooft, guy was a legend there, not now, he's killed off all of what he's done for them in the past with one crazy signing. Dear knows where this will end for them, isn't looking good.

Raith doing a U turn and deciding Goodwillie wont play for them now, fans booing McGlynn at the game last Sat and others boycotting it must've finally got the message through to them.

Think it will take more than an apology from the board now, they've made their position at the club untenable for a lot of Raith fans, and McGlynn may have to leave too, before the fans will feel able to return to Starks Park.

The Women's football team have taken Raith off their shirts and moved to another venue to play their games, can't see them just saying ok we'll return now.

The witch hunt of Goodwillie all over social media has made me feel uncomfortable.

Why did no one create this fuss while he was playing at Clyde for the last 5 years or so?

The criminal courts couldn’t prove he was guilty as they couldn’t build a case against him; the civil case amounts to a judge accepting the other party’s version of events. Presumably he has paid the damages he was ordered to & if so then he has paid for crime the civil courts found him guilty of.

Was he guilty? I don’t know but if he was it would appear he has not reoffended which suggests he has rehabilitated. He (like a certain Declan Gallagher who was actually found guilty in a court of law) maintains his innocence so comments like “he has shown no remorse” are strawman arguments - if he was to show remorse for his actions he would be admitting guilt.

Auld Nick wrote:Why did no one create this fuss while he was playing at Clyde for the last 5 years or so?

The criminal courts couldn’t prove he was guilty as they couldn’t build a case against him; the civil case amounts to a judge accepting the other party’s version of events. Presumably he has paid the damages he was ordered to & if so then he has paid for crime the civil courts found him guilty of.

Was he guilty? I don’t know but if he was it would appear he has not reoffended which suggests he has rehabilitated. He (like a certain Declan Gallagher who was actually found guilty in a court of law) maintains his innocence so comments like “he has shown no remorse” are strawman arguments - if he was to show remorse for his actions he would be admitting guilt.

From what i read the Clyde fans did make a fuss, but the club obv rode the storm out. Raith's high profile fan and sponsor got the First Minister tweeting support on her twitter page, which made this a whole different level from the Clyde fans protests.

Also read he claimed bankruptcy and didn't pay the victim a penny in damages from the civil court case.

I think Decs case is completely different from a sex offence, that would be more comparable to Lithgow's crime, though again a lot more severe than exposing himself, to have non consensual sex with a drunken girl too out of it to give consent. Also Lithgow was repentant, something Goodwillie has never shown, so he isn't rehabilitated. The Raith women's football captain felt strongly enough to resign, and the rest of the team took Raith's name off their shirts and moved to play at another ground, the whole situation became untenable for Goodwillie to play there.

Thanks for filling some of the blanks, I wasn’t aware of some of the things you have mentioned.

In terms of the comparison I made with Dec - it was more to do with the concept of maintaining a claim to be innocent, you can’t show remorse or be repentant for something you didn’t do (or that you consistently claim you didn’t do).

Another thing I’m not clear on though, is his claim of innocence based on ‘I did not’ or ‘It was consensual’?

I think the civil case judge was pretty damning on his summation, if the girl is virtually comatose and someone decides to have sex with her it isn't consensual in any way shape or form.

A security employee working at a nightclub said she was incapable of getting home, her eyes were rolling in her head and she couldn't stand up straight, or speak to her coherently, Goodwillie and Robertson offered her a lift home in a taxi,  but instead took her to a flat in Armadale, the judge rejected evidence from the players that she wasn't drunk and she had consented to sex with them.

Unless she sobered up in the taxi i'm siding with the civil judge ruling on this one, but it's difficult to get a rape conviction in the Crown court as they want an iron clad case beyond all reasonable doubt, and if one party is saying one thing and the other denying it, with no witnesses, i don't know how you get that.

Here's something asking 9 key questions on the rape case and revealing a few answers. https://www.pressreader.com/uk/the-courier-advertiser-angus-and-the-mearns-edition/20211231/281629603606563

Interesting because I had thought Robertson wasn’t involved in the civil case.

One thing that niggles me though is that she was sitting alone in the taxi when they got to the house and the taxi driver told her she didn't have to go in to the house. He offered to drive her home but she declined.
Further, they were all drunk so decision making on the part of all three was flawed not just her.

If she was that off his tits at the nightclub she couldn't speak coherently, and was incapable of getting herself home, i'm not so sure she can be judged on her decision making in the taxi, or if she even knew where she was.

They weren't that drunk they couldn't have sex, for a man, even at a virile age of 21, excess alcohol affects certain things, there come a cut off point when the body isn't going to do what the libido wants it to. It all sounds a bit too premeditated by the men, knowing exactly where they were heading when they offered her a lift home, and what they were going to do with her when they got there.

However this conversation is a prime example of why a Crown court prosecution didn't go through, showing it isn't beyond all reasonable doubt on their guilt.