Charlie Webster: 'I don't want kids to cheer on rapist footballer Ched Evans as a hero'

Sky Sports presenter Charlie Webster, who grew up supporting Sheffield United, tells Radhika Sanghani why she will resign her role as a patron at the club if Ched Evans is reinstated and about being trolled by the footballer's fans

Charlie Webster has said she will stand down as a patron of Sheffield United if Ched Evans is reinstated

Now that Ched Evans has been out of jail for almost a week, speculation is mounting as to whether the rapist will be allowed to play football for his former team, Sheffield United. So far, the football club has been eerily quiet on the topic and it is still unclear whether he will be re-signed.

But one person who has spoken out is Charlie Webster – a TV presenter and a patron for Sheffield United’s Community Foundation. She feels so strongly about Evans not being allowed to play football again that she has said she will resign from her role as patron if the club lets him come back.

“Our club’s footballers are heroes in that moment on the pitch when they score a goal,” she says. “I don’t want to stand by when our next generation cheers on a convicted rapist as a hero.

“I believe in football and know the power but I also know the influence it has and I know my own morals. The foundation I’m a patron of is all about respect and integrity and education for the next generation. I’ll resign because everything I believe in is that – but if they re-sign Ched Evans, it isn’t that anymore.”

Evans, 25, has been released from prison more than two years into a five-year sentence he is serving for raping a 19-year-old woman, who was too drunk to consent. At the time of being arrested, he was still a striker for Sheffield United.

He has always maintained that his victim consented to having sex with him, and the Criminal Cases Review Commission has now said it will fast-track his claim that his conviction should be quashed as a miscarriage of justice.

But the fact that he is serving the rest of his sentence outside of jail, and his former club could ask him back to play, has already sparked a petition of more than 150,000 signatures calling for the club to not reinstate him. Webster, 31, thinks that Sheffield United needs to listen these people: “I have heard a lot of people say they won’t be taking their kids to the game. The club needs to listen to those that are voicing their opinion and have signed the petition. The thing about Sheffield United is it’s a real family club. I have been brought up with that club in that community and I went to that football club since the age of four and my dad took me, and it’s something that really influenced me as a kid.

“He didn’t live at home and it was a way for us to connect. It was such a big part of my childhood. It’s why I think it’s so important and plays such a positive role in families.”

'He does what he wants'

_{Ched Evans}

She’s now worried that parents will either stop taking their children to games, or that those young supporters will be influenced by Evans. “I just think it’s a really bad message to send out to our community and our next generation… that someone can be convicted of rape unanimously, and walk out of prison and walk straight into the same job. He’s in a high profile job and with that celebrity and his position comes responsibility. It’s basically sending a message that you do what you want really.”

The effects are already coming through. When Sheffield United played Bradford last weekend, fans were heard chanting: “He does what he wants, he does what he wants, Chedwyn Evans, he does what he wants.” Webster thinks that if Evans is re-signed, it will just get worse – especially considering football is already heavily dominated by men at games.

“It’s making men look really bad, this situation. [Football] needs them to stand up. We need to get society as a whole campaigning against it – not just women. What’s it going to take for us as a society to stand up to it? I have heard upstanding professionals in my job saying they feel sorry for him, but what about the victim who was raped?”

During the rape trial in 2012, the victim’s identity was revealed on social media, and she was forced to change her identity. It has been reported this week that the same thing has happened again. “She’s had to change her identity twice now,” says Webster. “She’s had a hate campaign against her by fans of Ched Evans. She’s had horrendous abuse on Twitter never mind the fact that she was raped.”

'Sexual assault is a huge violation'

Webster also has personal experience of sexual assault. Back in January, she waived her anonymity and told BBC Radio 5 Live that she was assaulted by her running coach when she was 15.

It’s partly why she feels so strongly about Evan’s victim and how she is being treated.

“I do know what it makes you feel like,” she tells me. “It’s a huge violation. It takes away who you are and your self-esteem, your confidence. The thing is I didn’t go through what she’s going through because I didn’t have a hate campaign and abuse and Twitter trolls. I was sexually assaulted but I wasn’t a target.”

But ever since Webster aired her views on wanting to resign if Sheffield United reinstated Evans, she has received a number of abusive messages. She has also been targeted by trolls who believe Evans is innocent. Evans’s sister supports these claims and messaged Webster on Twitter, after finding a tweet which she had posted back in September.

It read: “Just bumped into Mike Tyson in the hotel lobby as I was randomly talking about him! I chickened out on asking for a photo … damn.”

Evans’s sister used the tweet to call Webster a hypocrite, given the fact that Tyson was convicted of rape in 1992.

_{Mike Tyson}

Football doesn't have a higher power

“I’m not proud of [the tweet],” says Webster, explaining that she hadn’t really had time to register Tyson’s past when she wrote it. “But what it does show is that the reason why people don’t step up against sexual violence is because this is what happens. As soon as you do, you get abused and berated. All I did was stand up and [now I] get this Twitter abuse.

“What I’m really worried about is if this carries on people who have been victims of sexual violence won’t come forward because look what’s happened to the victim of Ched Evans. How can she live her life? What did she so wrong? She went to a nightclub and had some drinks just like the majority of us do.”

Now Webster is urging her club to make a decision fast, so that the matter can be put to rest and Evans’s victim can move on with her life. “Sheffield United needs to stand up and either way make a statement because the speculation and the fact that they have been so quiet has been fuelling it. I would be so, so disappointed if they resign him, but they need to make a decision either way.

“The Football Association has a code of conduct. We wouldn’t be allowed to go back to our jobs. Football’s no different. It doesn’t have a higher power. Football needs to see what it can do as a positive, not as a negative. Depending on what happens with Ched Evans, it could be strong in a positive way.
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