Yeah, he has lodged an appeal so he can hardly apologise for raping the bird while he is appealing it.
I've no idea of the ins and outs of the case, or of what he has planned for his appeal, but IF (and it's a big if) he is innocent, you can see why he hasn't held his hands up. It may well be he is used to the power that his large salary brings him and thinks/hopes he will get away with it and is just appealing because he doesn't want the stigma of the conviction. In which case he is an even bigger bastard.
I do think he should have said something to stop the abuse his victim received from his "supporters" on twitter, but for all we know he may be under legal advise not to comment on the issue while his appeal is on going.
Regardless though, he has served his sentence. It may have been lenient but it was what the judicial system decided was fair. I'm sure some in his position have had heavier sentences, I'm sure some have had lesser.
Surely now he is entitled to return to his previous life? He has served what the judicial system decreed was a suitable punishment.
I suspect a lot of the hype on this is because he is a footballer and people resent the fact he will go back to earning "mega bucks". If he was a bin man and he went back to being a bin man, no one would care. Also, there is an element of mob justice here, and something that is becoming more prevalent in our society, people feeling they have a right to be offended and to say whatever they feel necessary to get what they feel is "right". By that I mean the threats to rape the daughter/wife of one of the Oldham directors if they employed Evans. People who make threats like that deserve to be sat beside Evans in prison. Yet they will be sat right now on their moral high horse castigating Oldham for considering signing him.
I take the point about footballers being role models, but if people are actually suggesting that by allowing a footballer to play after serving a sentence for rape you are telling kids that rape is ok. I think you're a ****ing idiot!
There wasn't this much fuss when Lee Hughes started to play again and he killed someone in a car crash, whilst drunk, and ran away. Not belittling rape, but I think we can agree killing someone is worse!
I don't remember there being uproar when Newcastle signed Patrick Kluivert. He's a convicted killer (similar to Lee Hughes, killed a pedestrian/cyclist while at Ajax).
Personally I wouldn't want Evans at my club (though he would be more use than Ballotelli, but then so would a blind three year old girl) but I can't help feeling we have to accept he has served his time and should now be free to return to his previous life and try to rebuild it. Why the hell else do we punish people? Is he supposed to be punished forever? I accept his victim has to live with what he did (assuming he did it/his appeal is thrown out) and I don't belittle what she is going through, but sadly there are probably hundreds of other people having to go through what she is and as a society we have decided that the punishment for the criminal is a prison sentence and that is it. Not continued public derision and never being able to do his job again. Is it really better for us as a society if he spends the rest of his life claiming dole? Putting aside whatever we may think of the punishment for rape, as a society we decided that X number of years is it. He has done what he was sentenced to do (allowing for remission and good behaviour etc) so he must now be allowed to resume his life.
I don't like it. Nor do I condone or belittle what he was convicted of. But I hate this trial by media, the sensationalism papers are using to flog a few extra copies and the right people seem to think they have to be offended by things. But there is no doubt this is a bloody tricky moral dilemma, and I don't particularly like defending him or his right to continue working, but those are the laws/rules our society is run by.