Former Celtic striker Anthony Stokes has failed to appear in court after testing positive for Covid-19.
The 34-year-old footballer had been wanted for failing to appear for sentencing at Hamilton Sheriff Court after bombarding his ex-girlfriend Eilidh Scott with offensive text messages. He was finally arrested by police in Northern Ireland, who were assisting police in Scotland, and placed on a flight from Belfast to Dundee Airport last month.
Stokes, of Dublin, had been ordered to return to Hamilton to appear before a sheriff on Friday August 19 but was absent after falling ill with coronavirus earlier this week. His lawyer Michael Gallen said: "He contacted me yesterday to advise he had contracted Covid and is unable to attend."
Sheriff Alasdair MacFadyen continued the case until September 16 for reports and ordered Stokes to appear. In 2019, Stokes admitted a stalking campaign where he bombarded Miss Scott with a string of abusive messages that saw him send 100 texts a day on WhatsApp and email.
He labelled her a 's**t', a 's**' and a 'w***e', turned up at her home in Shotts, Lanarkshire, late at night and demanded to know her whereabouts. The campaign of abuse lasted between July 2018 and February 2019.
Ordering the warrant for his arrest in June last year, Sheriff Allan McKay said: "He pled guilty and was released on bail and he has now left the country in breach of bail. He is not here in breach of his bail conditions and I'm not at all sure that he will come back unless required to do so by some sort of authority so to do that I'm issuing a warrant for his arrest."
Hours after the warrant was taken, brazen Stokes posted a selfie on social media with the caption: "Any bad news?" And over the festive season he posted snaps of himself posing in a bar while wearing Adidas Yeezy trainers and later posted a photo showing an expensive Rolex watch.
Stokes won seven trophies in six seasons at Parkhead and scored twice in Hibs' 3-2 Scottish Cup win over Rangers in 2016. He has also had spells with Falkirk, Sunderland and Iranian outfit Tractor but is currently without a club.
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