An international footballer who set up a women's football team at a Scots club she then resigned from the club after it signed rapist David Goodwillie told a tribunal she should never have trusted her boss.
Lauren Rabbitte, 24, is suing Clyde FC and the team's charitable foundation saying they reneged on a promise to pay her for a full-time job. She quit a £40,000-a-year role working for her mother's company to earn £32,000 at Clyde FC, which hit headlines this year after North Lanarkshire Council threatened to terminate a contract on its stadium if it re-signed rapist David Goodwillie.
A tribunal heard she was appointed by David Caldwell who introduced himself as "head of sport for Clyde FC" and told her the club had "plenty of money" for the new post. She said he admitted he had only recently learned about the existence of Clyde Ladies, but wanted to invest in the area because he knew women's football was on the up.
Ms Rabbitte, who played professionally in Scotland, England and the US and coached for Rangers, said the women's game in Scotland was "at least ten years behind England." She said she turned down a full-time job with Edinburgh City and an interview with Arsenal to take up the role at Clyde, where she was also tasked with securing more sponsorship for the men's side.
Ms Rabbitte admitted a funding application she had seen was "terrible", and was later told by HR it was full of spelling errors. She said: "Naively I trusted him."
Ms Rabbitte, who lives in East Lothian, said she was on a £40k salary at a sales firm owned by her mother when she was approached by Mr Caldwell. At the time she was coaching with Spartans FC in a voluntary capacity but said she had taken the role as far as she could.
The pair met and she says she accepted a job to oversee the development of girls and women's football on September 30. She said they agreed on a £32,000 salary with 20 per cent commission on sponsorship deals she secured.
She said: "We hit it off really well, I had a good profile.
"We shook hands and he initiated the handshake."
She said Mr Caldwell later told her on October 4 that he was going to put in an application for funding to the Robertson Trust but assured her she would still be paid regardless because "the club had plenty of money."
She said he told he was confident the funding would be approved "because it was women's football".
Ms Rabbitte says she had no input in the application but was shown a draft of it and described it as "terrible".
She said: "I wasn't too concerned because I was going to be paid regardless".
She was told by email in January that the application for funding had not been successful. Ms Rabitte said: "I called David to ask about it. His tone changed, it was very negative.
"He said 'we were never going to get it'.
"Still at this point he said 'yeah yeah we will get it sorted'.
"I was fed up, this was now the end of January."
She said she asked to be referred to human resources and called the Robertson's Trust and was told the application was "full of spelling mistakes" and limited in detail.
She claimed she was told the funding would have been awarded if it had included her evidence that girls were playing football with boys and the team needed the investment to boost participation.
She told the tribunal the women's side told her they were getting "no support" from Clyde and were changing on the pitch. The tribunal was shown emails where Mr Caldwell told the club he had taken her on in a voluntary capacity.
She contacted Aileen Campbell, chief executive of Scottish Women's Football who was "shocked at what I told her and quite frustrated." Mr Caldwell claimed in an email to Ms Campbell that Ms Rabbitte had agreed to work in a voluntary capacity for three months.
The club's lawyer questioned why she not approach HR herself about a written contract or raise a grievance and said emails made clear Mr Caldwell was affiliated to the foundation and not the club.
He asked why she contacted the Robertson Trust if she was confident her role would be paid regardless of the outcome. He suggested she was "invested in that application" because she was aware a paid post was dependent on it.
Ms Rabbitte announced she was leaving her post on March 3, the day after the club announced the controversial re-signing of David Goodwillie, who was ruled in a civil court to have raped a woman in 2017.
She is suing Clyde for unfair dismissal with other claims of sex discrimination and harassment. The tribunal, before employment Judge MacKay, will resume with Mr Caldwell due to give evidence.
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