What if the person having sex with them is just as drunk? Who's raping who then?

It would be an interesting legal case to consider if two people had sex, neither of whom were in a legally fit state to give consent. I suspect no lawyer with any sense would want to touch it with a barge pole and the CPS would probably not be enthusiastic.

There is a lot of pretty horrid stuff going on with the Ched Evans case but the basic fact remains : the man has served his sentence as required by the legal system and, as long as his job does not put him in 'risky' situations and lets be honest, doing your job in a big field with 22 other men on it and thousands of people watching is about as non-risky as you can get, he's eventually going to have to be able to get on with his life and that requires him to be able to do his job. Whether he's publicly apologised is not even an issue, we don't usually require public apologies from criminals, even people who have done things even more heinous than he has or that have much more public notoriety than a minor footballer. I'm also grimly amused by the way this has demonstrated a form of Streisand effect - Evans has been given vastly more profile by the campaign against him than he had for ever doing his job or being convicted of a vastly unpleasant crime. I've yet to hear a really convincing argument as to why he's somehow a special case that deserves special treatment.

Except he hasn't served his whole sentence, he has only served the custodial part. Some interesting reading here:

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/com ... 57849.html

Irrelevant Pendantry. Every other criminal who serves a part of his or her sentence then gets let out on license is free to continue their previous profession, or at least any previous legal profession. If someone who had caused say death by dangerous driving was a decorator, when/if they were released on license half way through their sentence - which is very likely under current legislation - they would happily be allowed to go back to painting & decorating. No other parolee that I can be remember has for some reason been required to not earn a living for the entire period of their sentence. In every other case such a restriction would be seen as incredibly counter-productive and would certainly be subject to legal challenge.

I don't wish any special treatment for Evans. I believe he should be treated exactly the same as every other criminal. I still have yet to hear a reasoned justification as to why he should be treated as a special case. This does not achieve that.

Jon

I assume you don't subscribe to the 'role model' argument then?

No, I don't in the least. I've followed football to a greater or lesser extent for 40 years, and I can name you any number of footballers who I certainly wouldn't consider as a role model for anyone. Some footballers are and should be considered as role models, that's fair. But to claim that all footballers are by definition role models is just another manifestation of the 'won't someone think of the children!' codswallop. You don't start off being a role model, you become one by the way you behave being a demonstration to others in how to act. Ched Evans has pretty much done the exact opposite of that. Anyone who considers him a role model has big problems to deal with. There are any number of players at any club in the Uk who young fans could safely look up to. I can't imagine why any single person, old or young, in the UK would consider Ched Evans to be the best choice for that job.

Coincidentally, Marina Hyde in The Guardian (not a newspaper you'd expect to be an apologist for a rapist) has written an article which pretty much parallels my own thoughts. Her basic premise is that Ched Evans is a poster case for the fact rape sentences are far too lenient but beyond that there's nothing special about him. Very pertinently she says



The idea Ched Evans is a role model is insulting not only to the victim of his crime, but to every football supporter. '"You're too thick to understand what he did was wrong, so we - who are much smarter and know better than you - are going to protect you from yourselves" It's patronising bull of the worst kind.

I suspect with the sexist legal system we have, the man would always be considered the guilty party by default.

Not convinced tbh, rape convictions seem to be notoriously difficult to obtain, especially in those instances where a DNA sample cannot be obtained.

Upon reflection, I have to concede to every point you make here. Yet I cannot balance in my mind this notion that someone who is so completely in denial that what they did was wrong can walk back into such a cushy life, as best I can see without a care in the world. I would definitely agree with the fact that a 5 year sentence (and release in 2.5 years) is far too short for a rape offence.

I'm torn on another matter as well. Whilst it should be clear that one cannot blame Evans for the subsequent actions of some of his supporters, his complete silence on that area makes me feel like he is complicit in their activities.

It's a view I have some sympathy with and it has to be said that the legal system is often not just. But the rules are the rules and we can't pick and choose when we apply them to our own sensibilities, or they aren't 'the rules'. As the article I linked quotes 'principles are only principles once they are tested'. If you believe as I do in the principle that someone, once they have been released from prison, deserves to attempt to rebuild their lives in peace dependant on them not threatening anyone else then you have to hold to that principle for Ched Evans too.


I previously wasn't aware there is significant evidence of a strong link between Evans and the website. I have no doubt didn't set it up and run it personally - it may be a cliche' but few footballers are bright enough to be that technical - but it seems he may well be in reasonable contact with the people who do and if he wanted to, even privately, he could ask them to take it down and they would. The fact he hasn't done so is a tacit endorsement of it.

Ched Evans’s ‘true friend and supporter’ abused victim of rape
http://www.theguardian.com/football/201 ... end-victim

They say you can judge a man by his friends... with Evans that might be idiots.