Accuser had a persuasive & convincing case against football star
QC urges judge to KO Goodwillie appeal
THE woman who sued football star David Goodwillie for rape had “a clear, cogent, persuasive and convincing” case, appeal judges were told yesterday.
Goodwillie and former team-mate David Robertson are appealing the decision to award Denise Clair £100,000 in compensation.
Lord Armstrong ruled in January that the two men had raped her at a flat in Armadale, in West Lothian, on January 2, 2011.
Denise’s QC Simon Di Rollo argued that Lord Armstrong had carefully studied the evidence and correctly decided on the balance of probabilities that his client had been raped.
Evidence included eye witness accounts from sober and independent witnesses, CCTV footage, data on blood alcohol counts and expert witnesses.
He told the Court of Session: “In my submission there was a clear, cogent, persuasive and convincing case on behalf of the pursuer.”
Mr Di Rollo, who acted for Miss Clair when she sued former Scotland striker Goodwillie and his ex-Dundee United teammate Robertson, asked the Lord Justice Clerk, Lady Dorrian, sitting with Lady Clark of Calton and Lord Malcolm, to refuse a challenge against the ruling.
Mum-of-one-Denise, 30, had woken up alone in a flat the morning after meeting Robertson and Goodwillie in a pub in Bathgate, West Lothian. She had no memory of what had happened after encountering them.
Goodwillie, now 28 and playing for Clyde, and Robertson, 31, claimed sex was consensual in the first civil rape action brought since modern changes to the law on rape.
Lord Armstrong made the finding that “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”.
The appeal argues that Lord Armstrong was wrong to disregard the evidence of Clifford Wilson, an upstairs neighbour of the flat.
Mr Wilson told of hearing laughter and “normal sex” sounds from downstairs.
But Lord Armstrong said his testimony was confused and that “little reliance ought to be placed on it”.
The appeal judges will give a ruling at a later date.