Bestselling novelist ends sponsorship of team over signing

KIRKCALDY, Scotland (AP) — A bestselling novelist has ended her sponsorship of a second-division football team in Scotland over its signing of a player who was ruled by a judge in 2017 to have raped a woman. Crime writer Val McDermid slammed Raith Rovers’ decision to sign David Goodwillie on Monday as a “disgusting and despicable” move that “shatters any claim to be a community or family club.” Goodwillie is a former Scotland international. He and an ex-teammate were ordered to pay damages of $135,000 to a woman they raped, a judge ruled in a civil case in an Edinburgh court in 2017. No criminal charges were brought against either of them.