Controversial columnist Katie Hopkins welcomes Ched Evans move from Chesterfield to Sheff Utd

Sheffield United and Chesterfield have reportedly agreed a fee of around £500,000 for Evans who last played for the Blades in 2012.

Evans, 28, was then found guilty of raping a 19-year-old woman in a hotel room in 2011 and sentenced to five years in prison.

However, that conviction was quashed and, following a re-trial last October, the striker was found not guilty. Yesterday, following United’s promotion to the Championship, rumours emerged that the club were set to bring the striker back to Bramall Lane.

The news has received mixed reaction but has been welcomed by Sun and Mail columnist Katie Hopkins.

The former Apprentice contestant tweeted: “Fantastic news for Ched Evans. Good man. Let the feminazis spit.” Hopkins wrote a column for the Mail online in October last year in defence of Evans following his successful retrial.

She attacked the fact that the “court of popular opinion still had him in the dock”, despite the not guilty verdict.

Hopkins then attacked Jessica Ennis-Hill, who wanted her name taken down from a stand if Evans were allowed to return to United to train. She then criticised Charlie Webster, a “TV nobody” who resigned as patron of the club in protest of Evans training at the club.

She wrote in the Mail Online: “More positively, the Ched Evans case may serve as a cautionary tale to young people on a night on the town: you are your own keeper.

“Your past may follow you, all the way to court. And what you refuse to do on a Saturday night is just as important as that most sacred cow, consent.”