Is this the face of a rapist?

Once again the ugly subject of rape tarnishes our otherwise pristine and perfect world. Phah! Yet rape is evil, is horrendous and is always a violent crime even if no apparent ‘violence’ took place, because it is an assault on someone’s body. So if Judy Finnegan thinks its not rape if no-one gets punched, kicked or threatened with weapons, then she needs to rethink things. Possibly before she decides to opine on things other than her book club or the latest recipe for quinoa extra-virgin gluten-free cup cakes.

Ched Evans, footballer for Sheffield United, was released from jail yesterday after serving 2-and-a-half years of a 5 year sentence for rape. His mate found an incredibly drunk girl in a kebab shop, took her to a pre-booked hotel and texted Evans to tell him ‘I’ve got a bird’. Evans turned up, the mate was already in flagranti… already involved, Ched joined in, the girl woke up naked and alone in the morning, probably with a seriously sore head, and cried rape, even though she could remember nothing of the evening. Though was more concerned about the loss of her handbag than anything else.

None of which makes it automatically rape. If the incident is forced by threats, it is rape, if forced by alcohol, which achieves the same end of rendering the victim powerless, its still rape. But the alcohol was self inflicted. In this case. And although standing in line for a kebab in Rhyl, North Wales is yet another invitation to bodily abuse of a different kind, that still doesn’t make it rape.

What makes it rape is lack of consent. Or even lack of ability to give consent due to unconsciousness. You need unambiguous consent before… well, before anything.

And the final question, the last past of this rather sordid little puzzle; should Evans be welcomed back to Sheffield United to play football? When he has shown no remorse, other than to maintain his story that it was not rape, backed up by the fabulous ‘evidence’ or at least ‘mitigation’ that ‘footballers are rich and fit and every girl wants to shag one’ in not so many words. If that were the case, why didn’t he take his pick whilst at the bar? Why wait for your mate to find one so out of it that she didn’t know a footballer from a Premier Inn £29.50 special weekend room deal?

None of which is very ‘hollywood’, its more ‘the arse end of Cardiff’. Ched’s girlfriend ‘stood by him’ to claim it was not rape. Yet oddly was seemingly unpurturbed by her boyfriend engaged in sex with a drunken bimbo along with his mate, whilst being filmed by a couple of other mates on their phones.

I make no judgments. (Yeah, right). But simply wish to raise a few points for consideration of this indelicatley delicate matter.

1. ‘Consent’ is a tricky one. Can’t it be implied? Does it have to be stated before 6 witnesses as many seem to imply? Whether drunk or not, if a woman is willing, eager even and passionately engaged in preceding events, cannot, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, that this is definitely a ‘game on’ situation?

2. Evans has served his time for the crime, has he not repaid his debt to society? Should he be further punished by not being allowed to play football? If he was a policeman, lawyer or schoolteacher, I could see a point. Even a politician. Positions where trust is required, where morality is assumed. But he kicks a fucking football in the lower leagues. Half his team mates are rapists, and worse, they’ve just never been caught.

3. Should all of Wales just be shut down? On moral grounds.

4. Will any of this affect how Spurs fare at Manchester City today? And is there any possible way we can abandon the match in protest? Against Chad? The sentence? The victim? Anything??

Happy Saturday… so far.

A xxxx