Oldham Athletic are said to be reconsidering signing convicted rapist Ched Evans. Sophisticated online campaigns on both sides have led to debate about the consequences of his conviction.
Ched Evans was a Sheffield United striker, jailed in 2012 after being convicted of raping a 19-year-old woman in a hotel near his home town of Rhyl. Evans was released in October and still protests his innocence.
Oldham were this weekend rumoured to be signing Ched Evans, but that the board of the club had not yet come to a decision.
The legitimacy of the conviction and the question of rehabilitation has provoked considerable debate, and sophisticated online campaigns supporting and opposing his bid to rejoin professional football.
Shortly after his release from prison Evans and his supporters created a website and social media campaign explaining why he believes he is innocent or was wrongly convicted.
The top result when you search for Ched Evans on Google is this official page, which lays out he and his legal team’s arguments. It also includes a CCTV video from a hotel lobby on he night in question, with the victim blurred, under the headline “Too drunk to consent, too drunk to remember?”
On the other side, tens of thousands of people have successfully petitioned football clubs and the government to prevent Evans from signing for a new professional club in the UK or abroad.
A petition set up just yesterday by Jean Hatchet (a pseudonym) has been rapidly picked up online. It gained 25,000 signatures asking Oldham to reconsider signing Ched Evans. The identity of the person leading the campaign against Evans is unclear, but they have received considerable abuse online from supporters of Evans.
The wording of petition Hatchet is sending to Oldham Athletic reads: “This is a damaging message about rape and sexual consent to be giving to your fans. Please think again.”
Change.org confirmed to Channel 4 News that Jean Hatchet had also created the previous petition that targeted Sheffield United, which was signed by 168,000 people.
A Change.org spokesperson told Channel 4 News: “This means that all the signers of the original petition would have got the update. Jean Hatchet is also very active on social media so that would have helped.”
So Hatchet was able to mobilise people who had targeted Sheffield United to then target Oldham Athletic.
The nature of this online and sophisticated petition campaigns against Evans will make it straightforward for the petitioners to use Change.org in future to target any other clubs who consider signing the striker. But the case has continued to generate significant debate online.
A first appeal against Evans’ conviction was rejected by three judges at the court of appeal in 2012. But the Criminal Cases Review Commission is currently investigating the case.
The debate about the Ched Evans case, rehabilitation, remorse and how footballers act as role models, has played out on social media. Many of those who signed the petition on Change.org, explaining their reason for signing, are then ‘liked’ by readers.
The most ‘liked’ reason for signing was left by Sarah Faulkner, York, who said: “This is not about stopping him from working at all, but about the football world saying that rape is not acceptable and that convicted rapists should not be lauded as “heroes”.
Oldham fan Callum Jones wrote: “I’m signing because as a life Oldham fan, I don’t want a player with that reputation to be even associated with Oldham, he doesn’t deserve to play football at all.”
Another fan, Irene Tamasi, said: “No one is saying he can’t work but he has never apologised for his behaviour.”
But in the Sunday Times David Walsh, examined the specifics of case: “Trawl opinion within football, however, and many think his conviction was unsafe … One club chairman who wanted to sign Evans but backed away because of pressure from sponsors asks a question that is central to the case: “Is there a legal alcohol limit at which a ‘drunken consent’ becomes a ‘too drunk to consent’, therefore you must ignore the consent?”
Piers Morgan, the former newspaper editor and broadcaster, said that other footballers who had killed pedestrians while they were driving were able to return to play professional football, and that Evans should be able to as well.