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Rehabilitation or Rejection? Sport's Moral Dilemma

After release from jail should a conviction for rape mean an end to your sporting career?

Footballer Ched Evans is not the first sportsman who, after serving a sentence for rape and protesting his innocence, has tried to re-start his career. In March 1995 boxer Mike Tyson was released having served half of a 6 year sentence for rape. Unlike Evans, his career resumed almost immediately. His comeback fight was watched by over a million and a half Americans, a then record figure for pay per view TV. Why was one man free to work again in his sport, while the other is unable to gain employment? To discuss the issues we are joined by Martin Daubney, former sports reporter for the News of the World newspaper in the UK, and the former editor of Loaded magazine, a tabloid publication aimed at young men; and Professor Marie Hardin, Dean of the College of Communications at The Pennsylvania State University. So have attitudes changed in the twenty years that separate these two events?

(Photo Left: Boxer Mike Tyson, convicted of rape in 1992. Credit: Getty Images. Photo Right: Footballer Ched Evans convicted of rape in 2012. Credit: PA)

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Duration:

7 minutes