FORMER Celtic striker Anthony Stokes is being hunted by police after failing to appear in court.
The 34-year old footballer had been due for sentencing at Hamilton Sheriff Court for bombarding his ex-girlfriend Eilidh Scott with offensive text messages.
But the court heard that the former Celtic and Hibs star had not responded to calls from social workers trying to create a background report on him.
Sheriff Alasdair MacFadyen ordered a warrant for his arrest following a brief hearing.
He said: “These are post-conviction cases.
“He hasn’t been responding to calls from social work and I will grant a warrant.”
Stokes had been arrested by police in Northern Ireland, who were assisting police in Scotland, and placed on a flight from Belfast to Dundee Airport in July.
He missed another sentencing hearing last month after testing positive for Covid-19 and had been ordered to appear back in court today.
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.
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The campaign of abuse lasted between July 2018 and February 2019.
Ordering a 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, 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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Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
