Former Scotland skipper Stuart Hogg has been fined £600 for breaching his bail conditions and given a five-year non-harassment order.
Hogg appeared at Jedburgh Sheriff Court for sentencing today (Thursday) after admitting to a single charge of domestic abuse against his estranged wife, Gillian Hogg, last month. Sentencing for that charge has now been deferred until 9 January.
At Selkirk Sheriff Court on 4 November, the 32-year-old admitted to shouting and swearing, tracking Mrs Hogg’s movements and sending alarming and distressing messages.
The court also heard that, over a five-year period, Hogg berated his former partner for ‘not being fun’ after drinks binges with his colleagues, and sent her more than 200 text messages in the space of a few hours despite having been asked to leave her alone, which caused her to have a panic attack.
In February, Hogg was taken into custody and placed on a bail order after police were alerted to ‘shouting and swearing’. Hogg previously admitted to breaching his bail conditions by repeatedly contacting Mrs Hogg in June of this year.
Prosecutor Drew Long told the court in November that Mrs Hogg’s family ‘noticed a change in her’ after she and her husband moved to Exeter in 2019. Four years later they moved to Hawick, Scotland, when Hogg downloaded an app to track Mrs Hogg’s phone. The Scot lives abroad and is currently in the midst of divorce proceedings.
Hogg spent nearly a decade with Glasgow Warriors, for whom he played more than a century of professional games, before beginning a four-year stretch with Exeter Chiefs in 2019.
The Melrose-born rugby pro also boasts 100 caps for Scotland, spending several years as captain of the national team. He now earns his living with French club Montpellier.
Angela Gray KC, defending Hogg, told the court last month that each incident in isolation “would have been unlikely to reach the threshold required for a prosecution in the criminal courts”, before admitting that he had “fallen short of what is expected of a husband”.
She added: “It is accepted by Mr Hogg that his conduct, looked at within the legal framework, was criminal in nature.” The court were also told that Hogg’s behaviour was “never intended to be abusive”.
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