FORMER Arsenal star Anthony Stokes is being hunted by police after he failed to appear in court for sentencing.
The striker, 34, was expected at Hamilton Sheriff Court today after admitting stalking his ex-girlfriend Eilidh Scott.
But the court heard Stokes had not responded to calls from social workers trying to create a background report on him.
A warrant for the arrest of the ex-Celtic and Hibs forward was then ordered by Sheriff Alasdair MacFadyen following the brief hearing.
He explained: “These are post-conviction cases. He hasn’t been responding to calls from social work and I will grant a warrant.”
Stokes bombarded his ex-partner Ms Scott with abusive text messages, seeing him send 100 texts a day on WhatsApp and email.
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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.
The 34-year-old, of Glasgow, was banned from contacting her and her mother for four years in 2019 after he admitted stalking.
Stokes was nicked by cops in Northern Ireland, who were assisting police in Scotland, back in July and placed on a flight to Dundee.
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His sentencing was deferred at the time on the condition of good behaviour, but he was ordered to appear back in court last month.
However, Stokes missed the sentencing hearing after testing positive for Covid-19, seeing it be rescheduled for today.
Police are now hunting for the footie ace after he failed to show up.
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 announced, 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 Celtic and scored twice in Hibs’ 3-2 Scottish Cup win over Rangers in 2016.
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He has also had spells with Falkirk, Sunderland and Iranian outfit Tractor but is currently without a club.
The 34-year-old was capped internationally for Ireland nine times during his career.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
