Ched Evans: Convicted rapist and footballer issues apology

Remorse and guilt are completely different.

 

Why not? I think you've jumped to a big conclusion there mate.

Rehabilitation of offenders doesn't mean that once they come out of prison their criminal record is wiped clean. The offence that led them to get sent down in the first place has to have a bearing on what they can and can't do upon release. People guilty of serious financial crime aren't welcomed back into the City upon release. Paedophiles who abused their position aren't welcome to return to their previous roles as schoolteachers or childminders upon release. And so forth. I really don't think it's appropriate that someone guilty of a crime like Evans should be able to walk back into a position like professional football, where he would naturally become idolised by young fans and where young lads coming through the youth system would be aspiring to be him.

It does get me that footballers believe they have a divine right to the easy life that is football and that they deserve to earn enough money to retire at 33, because football is a short career. There are plenty of other professions out there you know.

In any case, in what way is Evans rehabilitated? He doesn't accept that what he did was even wrong and, lets face it, the defence and the prosecution pretty much agreed on the chain of events surrounding the case. It's just that Evans and his lawyers don't appear to agree that someone in the state the lass was in was in no position to make an informed decision on consent. Lets not forget, he has been released from prison, but is still serving his sentence. He is also on the sex offenders register and will be for some time.

Just because people don't think Evans should be allowed back into professional football doesn't mean that these people don't agree with the concept of rehabilitation. Life is not that black and white. It's like the 'if you're not with us, you're against us' bolox that our American cousins like to spout.

 

so where would you like to see him seek employment?

 

so where would you like to see him seek employment?

 

so what?

Who do you want him to apologise to - society, yourself, his victim?

Does his victim want an apology?

 

In a role where he's not working with vulnerable people, where his sex conviction and ongoing inclusion on the sex offenders register won't prohibit him from working and where he won't be held on a pedestal as a role model for supporters and youngsters hoping to follow the same profession to wish to emulate. I wonder if he's had a trip down to the job centre and met with a careers advisor yet?

 

can you suggest some 'suitable' occupations?

 

FFS. There are plenty of occupations that don't fit into the categories that I have mentioned and well you know it. For starters, maybe his supportive father in law could give him a job in one of his many companies, like his jewellery shop.

 

surely you're not suggesting that shop workers should have to work alongside a convicted rapist?

 

I'm awfully sorry if I am being rude here, but are you just arguing for the sake of it now? Preventing Evans from returning to football isn't because I don't think fellow players should have to work alongside him. It is for the reasons that I gave above. I also wouldn't want him working in a care home looking after abused women. Or in a junior school. But in a shop based retail outfit the issues preventing him working in these three areas (i.e. Working with vulnerable people, working in an area that his criminal history forbids or working with youngsters aspiring to be him) are most likely not there. Yes, some fellow workers may not like working with someone with that kind of conviction and many employers wouldn't want to take someone on with that kind of conviction. I work in the financial services industry and can tell you now that I would have absolutely no chance of getting another job in this industry with that kind of conviction. But some workers don't like working with people who are disabled, who have different politics to themselves, who have different colour skin to themselves and endless other reasons. But life isn't perfect is it.

There are thousands of ex-convicts out there working in all sorts of environments. But people convicted of certain crimes are not able to work in certain areas. Is this really that difficult to understand? The chairman of the FA has today announced that the FA are considering bringing in rules which are likely to see players convicted of sex crimes banned from playing professional football, which will make this issue a lot clearer going forward. I think the FA are embarrassed that they didn't have something like this in place previously.

At the end of the day, I'm sorry if Evans or any other person convicted of similar crimes finds it difficult to find paid employment upon release from prison, but he's a grown man and has to realise that certain actions have certain consequences.

 

Gordon, you've summed up everything I'd want to say about it. He has the right to rehabilitation and to work, but he does not have the right to resume exactly where he left off and no employer has any obligation to employ him.

Welcome to the real world Ched.

 

Showing remorse for what he did would be a step in the right direction and it wouldn't be an admission of guilt. I think most decent thinking folk expect that this is the first step in his 'rehabilitation'. I don't get why Evans apologists such as yourself find this suggestion so unsavoury.

 

Evans is a rapist who I would never want to see as part of BFC. I am certainly no 'Evans apologist.'
Without meaning to be offensive can I ask you what right have you to represent 'decent thinking folk' to pronounce what a rapist should or should not do.
And who do you want him to show remorse and apologise to - the victim, yourself, society, footballers.

 

I didn't want Evans at BFC - wouldn't go to Oakwell if he was there. Saw it as none of my business if he went to Oldham or elsewhere. He's a rapist who has gone through the judicial system and been punished. You take a superior stance and deem that he should be punished further by being denied the chance to return to his former employment. Why?
Was your concern really for the youngsters of Oldham or do you want to put the boot in on this convicted rapist/

 

Ha ha ha ,i think if you break it down on those points he ll never be able to do owt again

 

We're going round in circles here aren't we. I've explained above why I don't think professional football is the career for a convicted rapist, so I don't want to repeat myself. And yes, the punishment for some crimes does extend beyond the prison sentence, because, as I have said above, release from prison doesn't wipe the slate clean on what you have done, it simply means that the prison aspect has been completed. And if you think my stance is a 'superior' one then yes, I certainly feel superior to someone who has done something like he has done and who lives by the set of morals that he seems to live by. I also don't really see it as my business per se, if he were to sign for a team other than my own, but this is a discussion forum and the discussion is whether we feel that Evans should be entitled to walk back into professional football, so I am giving my opinion is all. It seems that my opinion is shared by a great deal of people though, not least the FA, who, as I said, are now looking to bring in a code of conduct that would shut the door on any such future discussions.

 

That's the reality for sex offenders though.

The guy is what? 26 years old? If I was him I'd be looking at finding education and training in employment sectors that would accommodate someone with his criminal record. I know people that have retrained in their 40s and started new careers so there's no reason why he can't do the same. He may even want to work in counseling or the rehabilitation of offenders... who knows, but football is not his only available path in life.

 

He was a scumbag, but there's some slightly odd decisions and statements in the case that at a glance leave space for genuine discussion and consideration.

 

But there's a contradiction here - you can't say it's not your business if he were to sign for another club and then object to him walking back into professional football. By objecting to his going to another club you inevitably make it your business.

Feeling 'superior' (your word) to someone is a difficult place to be!

 

No, feeling superior to a rapist is quite an easy place to be.

There are a lot of things that can be said to be 'not our business' that we are allowed to hold an opinion on aren't there?

Seriously, this is all getting a bit silly now, so I'll let you have the last word, which is what you seem to want, and we'll leave it at that, eh?