Speculation: Ched Evans, you decide

[AthleticoSpizz]

Lee Hughes, Luke McCormick, Marlon King etc have all earned a tasty crust within the game after their release.

Evans will no doubt do the same......he will (of course) get mocked by the opposition fans, yet lauded by his own (whoever and whenever they may be)....pretty stock-standard-football fayre these days.

A couple of years time, nobody will particularly give a f11ck

[From Despair To Where?]

Professional footballers are a bit different from 'the ordinary man in the street' and they get extremely well rewarded for the 'burden' of being treated differently.

They have very high public profiles and are seen by many, particularly youngsters, as role models. So Mr Evans, through his conduct and apparent lack of public remorse despite being found guilty, has IMO forfeited his right to return to his highly paid profession. However, having done his time he is perfectly entitled to take up an ordinary job elsewhere out of the public limelight.

There's a lot of things I don't agree with you but you're spot on here.

[Royal Ginger]

^ agreed with this.

Media image and being a role model is part of his job.

My job involves cash handling. If I got caught nicking a load of cash and jailed for it, i'd expect to get a job again, but not one handling cash.

I wouldn't mind seeing him emptying my bins or selling insurance, but i don't think he should be a footballer anymore.

[sandman]

Parents are role models not footballers.

[Elm Park Pasty]

Royalwaster
Not sure it's right to say that the psychological damages is the same .... being assaulted in public and fearing for my life I'd say would result in more psychological damage to most people, than having sex with someone when blind-drunk .... (and not even being able to remember that it happened - in this case, it only came out that CE had had sex with the girl based on his own admission I think).

As stated by Wiggso, the point is she was raped, she did not 'have sex'. To be found guilty it has to be found that the accused DID NOT have reasonable cause to believe consent had been given. The jury found that he did not have reasonable cause to believe consent was given, so he was found guilty. I believe this may be one of the things Mr Assange came unstuck on, think he was trying to have unprotected sex with a woman who was asleep. Same rule applies. She DID NOT give her consent. Not exactly sure how someone can think it's ok to presume being flat out drunk is a consent for sex?

[Pepe the Horseman]

Parents are role models not footballers.

What if your parents are footballers?

[Royal Ginger]

Parents are role models not footballers.

What if your parents are footballers?

Ched Evans could potentially be a "forced father"

[Royal Ginger]

Parents are role models not footballers.

I dunno, I never played microelectroics with my friends and pretended to be my Dad. But i did get into a fight once with the kid from down the road because we both wanted to "be" Jimmy Quinn.

[tidus_mi2]

Parents are meant to help us know the difference from right and wrong and hopefully guide us on our moral views, hence why racists often have racist kids.

Alternatively footballers are supposed to be role models but with a correct upbringing we shouldn't be led astray by a poor role model, Ryan Giggs was one of my favourite players growing up, doesn't mean suddenly I want to have an affair with my brother's wife (PoV may change if my brother marries Jennifer Lawrence).

[PieEater]

Professional footballers are a bit different from 'the ordinary man in the street' and they get extremely well rewarded for the 'burden' of being treated differently.

They have very high public profiles and are seen by many, particularly youngsters, as role models. So Mr Evans, through his conduct and apparent lack of public remorse despite being found guilty, has IMO forfeited his right to return to his highly paid profession. However, having done his time he is perfectly entitled to take up an ordinary job elsewhere out of the public limelight.

^this.

It was quite amazing the guest on BBC Breakfast couldn't manage to put the difference quite so clearly. I was waiting for her to say role model but she never did.

[strap]

Anyone who seriously thinks footballers are role models does need to wake up and smell the coffee. As with "reality" tv "stars", x-factor contestants et al, they are nothing more than a bunch of overpaid prima donnas or wannabees. I suppose the challenge today is to make the impressionable understand this fact.

Quite how many young kids will look at Evans' crime and think it is "cool", "acceptable" or will want to try to copy it, is a moot point. I suspect, (hope?), very very very few - or is it actually me being naive??

[Ian Royal]

Anyone who seriously thinks footballers are role models does need to wake up and smell the coffee. As with "reality" tv "stars", x-factor contestants et al, they are nothing more than a bunch of overpaid prima donnas or wannabees. I suppose the challenge today is to make the impressionable understand this fact.

Quite how many young kids will look at Evans' crime and think it is "cool", "acceptable" or will want to try to copy it, is a moot point. I suspect, (hope?), very very very few - or is it actually me being naive??

Given reported rapes rose by 29% and the horrifying numbers of women who experience rape or sexual assault at some point in their lives, it hardly acts to underline its wrong even if it doesn't actively persuade someone it's ok.

[P!ssed Off]

Can we be 100% sure that he's a rapist?
I don't think so, for the same reasons that tend to make the conviction of similar types of rape hard to prove.


On the basis that he most probably did commit the offence, I wouldn't want to see him in a Reading shirt.
However, the slight element of doubt + "served his time" argument, means that I wouldn't put my name to a petition calling for no other club to sign him.

A simple solution would be if he goes and signs up with a Chinese club or similar.

[Ian Royal]

Given he was convicted, yes, legally we can and he is.

Can we be absolutely certain? Well if you want to get into a debate about whether we can ever know anything for certain, no. But we know that the vast majority of 12 people who heard all the evidence thought he was guilty beyond reasonable doubt. Not only that but I'm not aware there was any appeal attempts, which tends to rule out the idea there was some dodgy evidence or miscarriage of justice. So I have to say its a rather bizarre question and one I, personally, find rather disturbing. And your answer even more so.

[P!ssed Off]

Given he was convicted, yes, legally we can and he is.

Can we be absolutely certain? Well if you want to get into a debate about whether we can ever know anything for certain, no. But we know that the vast majority of 12 people who heard all the evidence thought he was guilty beyond reasonable doubt. Not only that but I'm not aware there was any appeal attempts, which tends to rule out the idea there was some dodgy evidence or miscarriage of justice. So I have to say its a rather bizarre question and one I, personally, find rather disturbing. And your answer even more so.

Strikes me as one of those cases where if you tried it 10 different times with ten different juries, you might not necessarily get ten consistent outcomes.

Case in point, Evans's friend/accomplice was also tried and was not convicted.

The Sky Sports News segment I watched today said his legal team was mounting an appeal. Not their first attempt either.

It might be disturbing to think that not every single person that is convicted of a crime is guilty, and that not everyone who is given a 'not guilty' is innocent but that's the reality.
There are certain criminal trials where of course you can be essentially 100% certain. There might be concrete, irrefutable CCTV evidence, DNA evidence, 100 witnesses, full confession etc.

It appears in this trial the jury had to make a judgement call, and I'm certainly willing to go along with that but not to the extent that I will be following his future career with massive scrutiny.*

*So long as it's not at Reading.

You can't look at this case and not have doubts about the legal process imo. Two people were tried on the exact same charge. One was convicted, one was not. Either one person has got away with rape, or one person has been wrongly convicted.

And tbh I don't agree with the 'rape is rape' line:
"The judge said the sentence took into account that there had been no force involved and the complainant received no injuries.
He also said the complainant was not "targeted" and the attack had not been "premeditated"."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-17781842

There are clearly varying degrees of rape. The judge thinks so, not sure why it is unacceptable for the likes of Judy Finnigan to take such factors into consideration.

[Sutekh]

Rumour is Sheff Utd want to re-sign him and are discussing at board level whether to move or not.

[JakeTheRoyal]

With a packet of sweets and a cheeky smile Evans is a oxf*rd paedophile.

[Armadillo Roadkill]

He has been convicted of a very serious crime, he has completed his sentence, and he is entitled to seek employment. The question is the relevance of his offending to the occupation (we assume) he's seeking.

Women's refuge - clearly the crime is relevant and he could not be employed there.
Bus driver - probably OK. He can't be debarred from roles just because there might be women co-workers or contact with the public.
Taxi driver - clearly not. Would need to drive women who are on their own.
Footballer - well, it ticks many of the boxes - almost exclusively male environment so little working alone with women, no direct relevance to the crime. The problems are it's typically well paid and has a high profile. You have to decide if these two things are enough to put it in the same category as taxi driver. I'd suggest not.

A really big display of (genuine) public penance, a commitment to work with other offenders, a regular donation of significant proportion of salary to relevant causes and I think I'd be OK with him in a Reading shirt. Without that I don't think just seeing out his prison sentence is enough to win people over to the idea of his employment as a footballer, and he might therefore be better off seeking lower profile role.

[semtex1871]

Girl meets 2 footballers and agrees to go back to their room. She agrees to sex. No injuries, no sign of any forced sex. This was not rape.

I hope the appeal is successful as this chap should never have been sent to prison in the first place.

[PieEater]

I think it's no coincidence that there are a lot of these cases in the US with American footballers. Players egos are hyped and think they can get their own way with anything or anyone.