Goodwillie must pay rape victim
Footballer’s evidence `unimpressive’
Stirling footballer David Goodwillie and a ex-teammate have been ordered to pay £100,000 damages to a woman who accused them of raping her.
Mother-of-one Denise Clair, who was left “devastated” by a Crown decision not to prosecute, sued Goodwillie and his then Dundee United colleague David Robertson, claiming that they raped her at a flat in Armadale, West Lothian, after a night out in nearby Bathgate.
Denise could not remember what had happened between the time she was in a Bathgate bar and when she woke up naked and in pain in the strange flat the following morning.
The 30-year-old originally sought £500,000 in compensation but damages of £100,000 were awarded in the civil action at the Court of Session in Edinburgh on Tuesday.
Denise said she was incapable of giving free agreement to sex because of her alcohol consumption but Goodwillie (27), who now plays with Plymouth Argyle, and Robertson claimed that intercourse had been consensual.
The judge in the case, Lord Armstrong said: “Having carefully examined and scrutinised the whole evidence in the case, I find the evidence of the pursuer to be cogent, persuasive and compelling.”
He asdded: “I find that in the early hours of Sunday, January2, 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.”
The judge said that he found neither Goodwillie nor Robertson to be credible or reliable on the issue of whether they had a reasonable or honest belief that she was consenting.
He rejected evidence relied on by the players that the woman was not particularly affected by alcohol and was no more drunk than anyone else in the company they had been in that night.
Lord Armstrong there was evidence of flirtation between the woman and Robertson earlier in the evening but the judge added: “The mere fact of sexual attraction does not preclude rape.”
The judge said of former Blackburn Rovers and Aberdeen striker Goodwillie: “The first defender was not an impressive witness.
“Particularly in relation to his assessment of the pursuer’s condition, his evidence was given with a view to his own interests rather than in accordance with the oath which he had taken. I did not find his evidence to be persuasive.”
Lord Armstrong said: “Like the first defender, I assessed the second defender as a witness who was being selective as to what he was prepared to tell the court and whose evidence, directed as it was entirely to his own interests, was partial and partisan. “He did not present as a witness who was being entirely candid. On the significant issues arising in the case I did not find his evidence to be credible or reliable.”
Lord Armstrong said that prior to the incident Denise had enjoyed life but her life changed following the decision not to proceed with a prosecution.
She was told by Crown Office in 2011 that they were not going ahead with criminal proceedings.
Lord Armstrong said: “She found that decision difficult to understand and had felt that she had not been believed.
“She felt that her life had been destroyed by something which had happened although, because of her lack of memory, she was not fully aware of what it was that had caused that effect.”
She had experienced suicidal thoughts and it was only last year that she felt comfortable forming an intimate relationship again.
Lord Armstrong said: “She maintained emphatically that she would never voluntarily have had sexual intercourse with two men simultaneously and that she had never ever done that before. As she put it, she would never ever agree to do that.”
She felt that her life had been destroyed