Outrage as Ched Evans supporter wins role on sport’s ‘supreme court’
A LAWYER who wrote in defence of Ched Evans after the footballer was convicted of rape has been appointed to world sport’s ‘supreme court’.
Stuart Gilhooly, a solicitor for the Professional Footballers’ Association of Ireland (PFAI), sparked outrage after appearing to suggest the 26-year-old player was innocent. In the same article he described the rape for which Evans was jailed as an ‘alleged crime’.
Despite the controversy over his remarks, Mr Gilhooly will sit on the panel at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), which works with organisations such as Fifa, the international governing body for football, its European equivalent Uefa, and the International Olympic Committee, to settle disputes.
Former Sheffield United striker Evans was jailed in April 2012 for raping a 19-year-old waitress, who was judged to have been too drunk to have given her consent to sex.
Last week, The Mail on Sunday revealed how the victim has been forced to move five times after being identified by internet trolls. In his article Hanging Ched – Double Jeopardy In The Court Of Public Opinion – published on the PFAI website, Mr Gilhooly wrote: ‘If having sex with a drunk woman is rape, then thousands of men are guilty of rape every day... degrees of intoxication are a very difficult concept for young men to grapple with when they themselves have had plenty to drink.’
In the same article, Mr Gilhooly attacked those protesting over Evans’s attempts to resume his career.
Many soccer fans reacted angrily to Mr Gilhooly’s appointment. Johnny Keegan, of Dublin, tweeted: ‘Is this the same PFAI solicitor who tried to convince us that convicted rapist Ched Evans is innocent?’
Paul Hartnett, of Cork, Ireland, wrote: ‘Baffled.’
Mr Gilhooly said yesterday: ‘My appointment to CAS has nothing to do with the article.’
PFAI general secretary Stephen McGuinness said: ‘Stuart Gilhooly’s article on Ched Evans was taken down from our website 14 hours after it was posted because the opinions expressed were Mr Gilhooly’s and not those of the PFAI.’
The Ministry of Justice stepped in yesterday to prevent Evans resuming his career overseas. Maltese side Hibernians had offered him a deal, but the MoJ said that as a convicted sex offender on licence, Evans was barred from working abroad.