Arrest warrant issued for ex-Arsenal star Anthony Stokes as he fails to appear in court for sentencing after stalking his ex-girlfriend

An arrest warrant has been issued for former Arsenal footballer Anthony Stokes after he failed to show up for sentencing at court. 

The Irish striker, 34, was due to appear at Hamilton Sheriff Court in Glasgow today, September 16,  after he admitted stalking his ex-girlfriend Eilidh Scott.

Stokes, of Glasgow, was banned from contacting his former partner and her mother for four years in September 2019 and was handed four-year non-harassment orders after he admitted stalking.

Sentencing was deferred at the time on the condition that Stokes showed good behaviour.  

But the footballer later admitted breaching the non-harassment orders by repeatedly sending emails and texts to his former girlfriend and repeatedly calling her mother in November and December 2019.

He also admitted causing his ex-partner fear or alarm by repeatedly sending her messages between November 16 and December 3, 2019, in which he did ‘swear and utter offensive remarks’, and by repeatedly telephoning her parents to ‘utter inappropriate and offensive remarks’ about her.

Stokes was due to be sentenced last month but was unable to attend as he had contracted Covid-19.

Following his failure to appear in court on Friday, Sheriff Alasdair MacFadyen ordered a warrant for his arrest in the brief hearing.

In February 2021, Sheriff MacFadyen placed Stokes under supervision for two years which required him an anti-domestic abuse course called the Caledonian Programme. But he warned that failure to complete the programme could see him put behind bars.

The case was first heard back in 2019 and was told he had bombarded Ms. Scott with a string of abusive messages that saw him send up to 100 texts a day.

In them, he called her a ‘s**t’, a ‘s**g’, and a ‘w***e’ and at one point turned up at her home in Shotts, Lanarkshire, late at night. It dated back to a period between July 2018 and February 2019 and saw him make excessive efforts to reach her.

At the time depute fiscal Lynn McFauld said: ‘Contact was made using six different mobile phones all attributable to the UK and one which was an international number.

‘In July she attended at a friend’s house for a girls’ night in and received numerous calls, texts, WhatsApp and Facetime messages from the accused but declined to answer them.

‘She was becoming extremely uncomfortable and agitated by this and eventually accepted a Facetime message hoping that if she spoke to him he would desist and let her enjoy her night.

‘He immediately demanded to know where she was and who she was with and was clearly angry and agitated.’

The court heard Stokes arrived at her mother’s home later the same evening and confronted Miss Scott when she arrived home. Her mother called her to say he was banging on the door, shouting through the letter box, and sitting outside facing the family home.

Miss McFauld added: ‘At 1am the complainer’s friend’s boyfriend arrived back in order to take her home.

‘She advised him to drive her to her front door so she could get in and then she and her mother locked and secured the door.

‘The friend reversed out and observed a door of a vehicle opening which caused him to stop and the accused got out and asked ‘What is that all about?’.

‘He started walking towards the vehicle and rattled the window with his fist before demanding to know where the complainer had been and why she was being dropped off.

‘The witness was scared as to what might happen next and drove off but as he did the accused kicked the vehicle.