Former Irish international and Celtic FC footballer Anthony Stokes has been freed on bail again by the courts in Scotland a year after failing to return for a sentencing hearing.
The 33-year-old appeared before Airdrie Sheriff Court via video link from London Road police station in Glasgow on Monday. His appearance came a day after he was arrested by the PSNI in Northern Ireland and flown from Belfast to Dundee on foot of arrest warranting outstanding for just over a year. He will appear again before Hamilton Sheriff Court on August 19th.
A warrant for Stokes’s arrest was issued in Scotland over a year ago as he had been convicted of breaking an order banning him from contacting the father of his former partner, Eilidh Scott.
Stokes was arrested on Sunday by the PSNI at the request of police in Scotland. He was then flown from Belfast into Dundee at around 4pm and escorted from the plane by security personnel used in Scotland to bring suspects to court appearances.
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Police in Scotland confirmed a man had been arrested, though did not name Stokes. “A 33-year-old man has been arrested in connection with outstanding warrants. He is due to appear at Hamilton Sheriff Court on Monday, July 18th, 2022.”
Last June Sheriff Allan Mackay issued a warrant for the arrest of the former professional footballer after he pleaded guilty to breaching a non-harassment order between November 2019 and February 2020.
“He pled guilty and was released on bail and he has now left the country in breach of bail,” Sheriff Mackay said at the time. “He is not here in breach of his bail conditions. I’m not at all sure he will come back unless required to do so by some sort of authority. So I’m issuing a warrant for his arrest.”
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The order Stokes breached prevented him from initiating contact with the family of Ms Scott, with whom he has a young son and who he previously stalked and harassed. Last May, after Stokes pleaded guilty at Hamilton Sheriff Court to breaching the non-harassment order, Sheriff Peter Anderson deferred sentencing for a month and granted Stokes bail.
The warrant for his arrest executed on Sunday in Belfast was issued when he failed to turn up at the sentencing hearing in June, 2021. The authorities in Scotland confirmed last month they were still seeking him in relation to the warrant. In 2019, Stokes admitted sending Ms Scott large volumes of abusive messages by email and messaging app and turned up at her home late at night demanding to know where she was.
That abusive campaign was conducted between July 2018 and February 2019. Last year he was placed on an anti-domestic abuse course and was placed under supervision for two years over the abuse relating to Ms Scott. In 2017, Stokes received a two-year suspended sentence for headbutting Elvis impersonator Anthony Bradley (53) at Buck Whaleys on Leeson Street, Dublin, on June 8th, 2013.
In 2019 a case was struck out in the courts in Dublin after he was accused of assault causing harm to a man at Fitzgerald’s pub on Aston Quay, Dublin 2, on March 16th, that year. Stokes denied the charge and claimed he was acting in self-defence.
