Rape shame footie star gets a right good Doune
GOODWILLIE ON PITCH AGAIN
HACKED BOOTED DUMPED RAPE shame football star David Goodwillie has made a painful return to the game. He quietly turned out on Saturday for Perthshire amateur side Doune Castle FC, weeks after a judge in a ground-breaking civil case ruled that he raped a young mum. But judging by these pictures, opponents Strathclyde University were far from scared to take on a former Scotland striker who once cost £2.8million. Goodwillie looks to have been on the receiving end of a few meaty tackles. He screamed for a foul after one challenge and ended up upside-down in mid-air after another. And although he scored twice in the game on a plastic pitch at the McLaren leisure centre in Callander, his team ended up losing 4-3. Goodwillie and former team-mate David Robertson were branded rapists by Lord Armstrong at the Court of Session in January and ordered to pay victim Denise Clair £100,000. He ruled that they took advantage of the 30-year-old after a night out while she was too drunk to consent.
Goodwillie had escaped a criminal prosecution over the incident in Armadale, West Lothian, on January 2, 2011.
Prosecutors decided there was not enough evidence to put him in the dock. Robertson was never charged.
In the civil case, where the burden of proof was lower, both players claimed Denise consented to sex.
Goodwillie, 27, has begun an appeal. He is said to be facing bankruptcy over legal costs.
He and Robertson quit professional football after the ruling. Goodwillie left his last club, Plymouth Argyle, “by mutual consent”.
Goodwillie played for clubs included Dundee United, Aberdeen and Blackburn Rovers, who paid £2.8million for him. He won three Scotland caps.
Doune Castle play in the Caledonian League, regarded as one of the top amateur leagues in the country. Doune is a few miles from Goodwillie’s home city of Stirling. SKELPED GOAL