High-profile Raith Rovers fan and sponsor Val McDermid has hit out at the club over a potential move to sign striker David Goodwillie.
The best-selling author – who has a stand at Stark’s Park named after her and has her name on the front of this season’s shirts – urged Rovers not to pursue the player in the January transfer window.
Her remarks came after her beloved Kirkcaldy club were linked with a move for Goodwillie, who was branded a rapist during a 2017 civil court case.
The former Dundee United and Scotland forward was ordered to pay Denise Clair £100,000 when a judge ruled that he and fellow player David Robertson had raped her, after the case had been dropped by a criminal court.
McDermid responded to reports Rovers could bring in the 32-year-old – who now plays for Clyde – in the comments section of the Courier Sport Twitter account.
She wrote: “Really? Is this the message @RaithRovers want to send?”
‘He’s not a role model in any sense’
Replying to supporters in the comments section, she said: “I argued strenuously against this when I was a board member.”
She added: “We call ourselves a community club.
“He’s not a role model in any sense. I don’t want him running around with my name on his chest.
“Two criminal convictions and a civil finding of rape. That’s pretty guilty in my book.”
Raith Rovers have declined to comment on the matter.
Ms Clair had initially sought £500,000 in compensation from Goodwillie and Robertson.
She was eventually awarded £100,000 in damages by Lord Armstrong, who said in his judgement: “Having carefully examined and scrutinised the whole evidence in the case, I find the evidence for the pursuer to be cogent, persuasive and compelling.
“In the result, therefore, I find that in the early hours of Sunday January 2, 2011, at the flat in Greig Crescent, Armadale, both defenders 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.”
In 2008, Goodwillie was fined £250 for punching a man in a Stirling nightclub.
Four years later he pled guilty to assaulting a man in Glasgow city centre.
