CRIME writer Val McDermid has urged her football club not to sign a player previously branded a rapist in a civil court.

Raith Rovers - the Kirkcaldy club with which McDermid has close ties - are reportedly keen to sign David Goodwillie in the January transfer window.

However, McDermid - whose website has been the club’s shirt sponsor since 2014 - has been vocal in her opposition to the move.

“We call ourselves a community club. He’s not a role model in any sense. I don’t want him running around with my name on his chest”, she said on Twitter.

Former Scotland striker Goodwillie, and his former teammate at Dundee United David Robertson, were found to have raped Denise Claire at a flat in Armadale, West Lothian, in the early hours of January 2, 2011.

The judge ruled that Claire was entitled to £100,000 agreed damages, saying she had been “incapable of giving meaningful consent” and that they “each raped her”.

Three judges at the Edinburgh Court of Session threw out an appeal against the ruling in 2017.

Calling on Raith Rovers not to sign Goodwillie, who plays for Clyde, McDermid wrote: “Really? Is this the message @RaithRovers want to send?”

Asked if this was the “road [the club] should be going down”, she replied: “No. I argued strenuously against this when I was a board member.”

The club’s home ground, Stark’s Park in Kirkcaldy, has a McDermid stand. It was named in 2010 after the author’s father who had scouted for the team.