What indeed. The answer "disappear without a trace for a couple of years" seems to come back in a pretty loud chorus, with a secondary choir descanting with "preferably forever". But not if his friends and supporters have anything to do with it, most notably the father of Evans' girlfriend. This wealthy gentleman has been running a powerful campaign to get him back playing with a first class football team. It emerged the other day that the reason Oldham Athletic did not immediately dismiss any speculation he might join their side is that the wealthy gentleman in question offered to indemnify them against any financial loss they might face should any sponsors drop out in protest against them employing a convicted, and so far unrepentant rapist. He even offered to pay his (perhaps) future son-in-law's wages. You have to admit it must have looked like a pretty tempting offer at first glance.
Having tried several times to get back into playing league football and failed miserably, will Ched now be advised to give it a rest? That is certainly the advice of this observer. He should now wait until the full five year term of "imprisonment" has expired, which is some time towards the end of 2016. Then he will have more justification for saying:
"Hey, I've served my time, fulfilled my debt to society. If anyone believes in rehabilitation, they should think about offering me a job now." This is certainly an improvement on what has happened in the last few months, where his future father-in-law has been as good as trying to buy his rehabilitation.
And he should think very carefully about issuing a more substantive apology to the woman he wronged. He has already produced what I call a "Bernard Matthews apology", where he has said he feels bad about any distress he may have caused, though that was never his intention and in fact he is not really responsible for what happened. What we, and she, really need to hear is something like this:
"When I had sex with that woman I was so drunk I didn't really think about whether she had given her consent or not. I have had time to reconsider and now accept that what I did was wrong."
The fact is that having sex with someone who is too out of it to give consent is wrong, not only legally but morally too. If he accepts that and waits for a while, I think people may feel more like forgiving him and allowing him to put his past behind him.
Ched, man, don't let your girlfriend's dad run the show. Tell him you're grateful for his all efforts on your behalf, but could he now please leave it out and let you adopt the low profile which right now is the only way to go?
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