Author urges Raith Rovers not to sign striker branded a rapist

Val McDermid says she doesn't want David Goodwillie 'running around with my name on his chest'.

30th Dec 2021

Crime fiction author Val McDermid has voiced her displeasure at reports linking Scottish Championship side Raith Rovers with a striker who was branded a rapist in a civil court.

McDermid, who is a lifelong supporter of the Kirkcaldy club and used to have a seat on the board, posted a series of tweets about Raith’s potential move to sign David Goodwillie.

The former Scotland international was ordered to pay £100,000 in damages by a judge in a civil court case in 2017 after it was ruled that Goodwillie raped a woman at a flat in Armadale, West Lothian.

The Crown had previously decided not to prosecute Goodwillie and his then-Dundee United colleague David Robertson due to insufficient evidence.

Responding to speculation linking Raith with signing Goodwillie from Clyde, McDermid posted on Twitter: “Really? Is this the message @RaithRovers want to send?

In another tweet she wrote: “I argued strenuously against this when I was a board member.”

She added: “We call ourselves a community club. He’s not a role model in any sense. I don’t want him running around with my name on his chest.

“Two criminal convictions and a civil finding of rape. That’s pretty guilty in my book.”

In 2008, Goodwillie was fined £250 for punching a man in a Stirling nightclub. Four years later he pled guilty to assaulting a man in Glasgow city centre.

Raith Rovers declined to comment.