Two more Sheffield United patrons have quit after the English club revealed it was allowing convicted rapist Ched Evans to train at the club.

Sixties' pop star Dave Berry and health expert Lindsay Graham followed TV presenter Charlie Webster in stepping down in protest at the football club allowing former United player Evans to return to training.

Ms Webster said she did not want to remain in the role if Evans returned to the club.

Evans (25) was jailed for five years in April 2012 for raping a woman in a hotel room in Rhyl, North Wales. He was recently released after spending two and a half years in prison.

Sheffield United says it will allow Evans, who has continued to protest his innocence, to regain his fitness but has not made a decision to re-hire him.

On Tuesday, the League One club released a long statement saying it had not yet decided whether to re-hire Evans, but had accepted a request from the Professional Footballers' Association (PFA) to let him train.

The club said it had considered the views of staff, the Football League, supporters and the general public, as well as the PFA view that footballers should be considered rehabilitated if they have served their sentence.

The club said it condemned rape and violence against women in the "strongest possible terms" but felt that Evans had acknowledged "the destructive nature of the acts which led to his conviction".

Sheffield United's manager Nigel Clough has since said the decision was deliberate, that all employees were consulted and that Evans is "entitled to an opportunity to resume his career."

When asked if the decision to allow Evans to train was a first step to allowing him back full time, Clough said: "That's a long way from being true...Everyone recognises the gravity of the situation and the seriousness of everything."

Ms Webster told the BBC's Newsnight programme: "At no point have Sheffield United acknowledged the extremity of his crime. I think it's over 155,000 people now that have signed a petition against Ched Evans going back to the club."

"My decision is made on the fact that I don't believe a convicted rapist, as in Ched Evans, should go back to a club that I am patron of and should go back into the community to represent the community."

She added: "He's not just going into a job, he's bandied as a role model."

"We cheer him on as a role model and he's influencing the next generation of young men who are currently still making their decisions on how to treat women and what sexual mutual consent is."

Ms Webster, who revealed in an interview earlier this year that she was sexually assaulted as a teenager, had previously vowed to quit her role if the club re-signed Evans.

Ms Webster has tweeted: "Overwhelmed by the level of your support. I am so heartened to see that the vast majority are standing with me & saying that this isn't okay."

The Welsh striker admitted having sex with the victim but said it was consensual.