Our thanks to David W for this. The start of the piece:
A former Scotland international footballer and his ex-teammate have been ruled to be rapists and ordered to pay £100,000 damages despite never facing a criminal trial. [my emphasis]
Denise Clair, who was left “devastated” by a Crown decision not to prosecute, sued striker David Goodwillie.
She also sued Goodwillie’s then Dundee United colleague David Robertson.
She claimed they raped her at a flat in Armadale, in West Lothian, after a night out in Bathgate in January 2011.
It was the first civil rape case of its kind in Scotland.
Ms Clair, who previously waived her right to anonymity, said she could not remember what happened after being in a Bathgate bar and woke up in a strange flat the following morning.
The 30-year-old originally sought £500,000 in compensation, [my emphasis] but damages were later agreed at £100,000 in the civil action at the Court of Session in Edinburgh.
The mother-of-one maintained she was incapable of giving free agreement to sex because of her alcohol consumption, but Goodwillie, 27, who now plays with Plymouth Argyle, and Robertson claimed that intercourse had been consensual.
A judge said: “Having carefully examined and scrutinised the whole evidence in the case, I find the evidence of the pursuer (the woman) to be cogent, persuasive and compelling.”
Lord Armstrong said: “In the result, therefore, I find that in the early hours of Sunday 2 January 2011, at the flat in Greig Crescent, Armadale, both defenders (the footballers) took advantage of the pursuer when she was vulnerable through an excessive intake of alcohol and, because her cognitive functioning and decision-making processes were so impaired, was incapable of giving meaningful consent; and that they each raped her.”
The parallels with the Ched Evans case are too obvious to need explaining.
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