The footballer's denial - convincing?
David Goodwillie in his own words
Scottish football club Raith Rovers is under fire for signing a player called David Goodwillie who, in 2017, was ruled to have raped a woman six years previously.
A quick timeline. Goodwillie was accused of the crime in 2011. At the time, authorities said there was insufficient evidence to take the case to court. The woman he raped took a civil action, and in 2017 a court ruled that Goodwillie had raped the woman.
Goodwillie has said little publicly about what happened, but he did speak to the Scotsman in December 2011.
This means the words we are looking at are from after when he was accused and after the charges against him were dropped, but before the civil action and ruling.
Looking at his words
At this time, he is denying what happened, so it makes for educational analysis.
It had been total and utter hell, the worst moments of my life. It was a dark time.
When I think back to January, everything was looking good, and then my life stopped after the accusation was made.
Here, his words are fairly straightforward and there’s lots of use of personal pronouns, he is owning the feelings he is conveying. His use of “total and utter” is to make sure we know just how bad it was, he’s after sympathy here and using persuasive words to get it.
It’s the end of the world when something like that happens to you. It was the lowest time of my life, and what followed was an inquiry which took an eternity, but which cleared me of any wrongdoing.
He’s laying it on thicker here. It wasn’t the end of the world, at this point the charges had been dropped and he continues to play football. That is why he said, “when something like that happens to you”. It’s vague and distant language, with “something like that” and “you” instead of “me”.
This backs up the first observation that he is exaggerating how bad he felt and is trying to engender sympathy.
Another note, he does not mention rape or sexual assault. He is trying to create a large distance between himself and the crime he was accused of at the time.
Furthermore, is that the charges were dropped due to lack of evidence. This does not clear him of any wrongdoing, as he claims.
I have a sister and, as a brother, I obviously worry. I know people out there will say there’s no smoke without fire.
This is an odd one. He states he has a sister and then that he worries. He doesn’t say what he worries about. He might worry about her being the victim of a crime such as he was accused of. Or he worries about the effect of the allegations on her. We would know if he expanded, but he’s steering well away from any talk of sexual crimes.
The lie
The whole thing was a complete nonsense from start to finish. I did nothing wrong.
The first sentence here is trying too hard to convince us. It’s packed with maximising language. “Whole”, “complete”, “start to finish”. Again, he’s keeping the details to a minimum, being accused, charged and un-charged is boiled down to a “thing”.
“I did nothing wrong” is a weak denial. It depends on his internal definition of “wrong”. It’s too unspecific to mean anything convincing.
Bear in mind that a court has since ruled he carried out a rape. This section, including the weak denial, is a lie. It’s the first direct lie we’ve seen in this extract, and you can see how his tactics of using distance, persuasive language and vagueness are ramped up in just a few words.
Patterns
I had terrible dark times too and was aware that if this went the wrong way I would be in serious trouble.
I could have been in a jail cell for several years. My life, my reputation, my career would all have been lost.
When you are in that kind of a dark place, you think your world is at an end. This is not the kind of experience you would wish upon your worst enemy.
The first two lines here are full of “I” and “my” and the last line is again all about “you”. There is a pattern now, when he's talking about feelings and consequences he uses personal pronouns and when he talks about being accused of rape he distances himself by using “you”.
I wanted to maintain a dignified silence, but this has been a nightmare for me and my family.
“This has been a nightmare for me and my family” is straightforward and direct. It’s an opportunity to see how he talks when he’s being truthful, no matter the truth or otherwise of the allegations, the process he went through wouldn’t be pleasant. It’s notable he mentions himself before his family.
I feel as if I have been tried in public and the media. I would like to now put the record straight.
I know what happened that night, and I know that I did absolutely nothing wrong.
Again, we know “I did absolutely nothing wrong” is a lie thanks to the outcome of the civil case. In Goodwillie’s testimony at the civil trial he said he had regrets about certain events on the night in question, which further suggests this denial is a lie.
Could we have spotted it was a lie at the time? Yes, in addition to being a vague, distant and unconvincing statement, he uses the word “absolutely” to try to convince us. In general, truthful people don’t feel the need to convince us they are telling the truth. To them, it is just the truth. When someone uses the word “absolutely” it’s a marker to look closely at what is being said for deception.
The missing victim
Finally, we need to ask what is missing. At no point does he mention the victim. We would expect that he would have some feelings about her, either empathy for her situation or anger towards her for making “false” accusations.
Of course, given what we now know if he felt anger towards her, it would be because she was making truthful allegations, and he can’t talk about that as he is denying what happened. It would be too dangerous to talk about that, so he avoids it entirely.
Conclusion
This is a self-centred man trying to create sympathy for himself and trying to create a lot of distance between himself and what he is accused of. His denials were so weak as to be non existent.
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