logo
Former Scotland rugby captain Stuart Hogg urged to stop feeling 'hard done by' over domestic abuse conviction

Former Scotland rugby captain Stuart Hogg urged to stop feeling 'hard done by' over domestic abuse conviction

Sky News25-03-2025

A sheriff is urging former Scotland rugby captain Stuart Hogg to face the consequences of his domestic abuse and "move on" from feeling "hard done by".
Hogg, 32, last year pleaded guilty to a single charge of domestic abuse of his estranged wife, Gillian Hogg, between 2019 and 2024.
He admitted shouting and swearing, tracking her movements and sending her messages which were alarming and distressing in nature.
A court heard how he berated his ex-partner for "not being fun" after going on drinking binges with his colleagues, and once sent more than 200 text messages to her in the space of a few hours, causing her to suffer a panic attack.
In January, Hogg was .
He had earlier been fined £600 for breaching bail conditions by repeatedly contacting Mrs Hogg when prohibited from doing so.
Sheriff Peter Paterson warned the sentence was an "alternative to custody".
A review of the CPO took place at Jedburgh Sheriff Court on Tuesday, which Hogg was excused from attending.
His lawyer, Mat Patrick, told the court: "We are just shy of three months into the order and the review report confirms that he is fully complying with the appointments, there have been no missed appointments.
"As far as progress is concerned, it looks like progress requires to be made but it is a 12-month order and is against the background of quite a difficult divorce which is ongoing at the moment and all the emotions that can come with that, and that has played a part.
"Obviously there is work to be done."
Sheriff Paterson said it was "not entirely surprising" that Hogg might feel "hard done by", but that he needed to move on.
He said: "He is the one that pleaded guilty and he has to face the consequences of his actions and he has to move on from that."
The sheriff fixed a further review to take place on 16 June.
He said: "If progress is satisfactory he will not have to attend, but if there is any difficulty he will have to attend."
Former Glasgow Warriors and Exeter Chiefs full back Hogg, who now plays for French club Montpellier, was awarded an MBE for his services to rugby in last year's New Year Honours list.

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Hidden invasion: Rwanda's covert war in the Congo
Hidden invasion: Rwanda's covert war in the Congo

NBC News

time6 hours ago

  • NBC News

Hidden invasion: Rwanda's covert war in the Congo

Open secret From the start, Rwanda has gone to extraordinary lengths to conceal its intervention in the Kivu provinces in eastern Congo, which went from a couple of hundred soldiers in 2021 to an estimated 5,000 today. But there have been lapses in Rwanda's secrecy. In May 2022, Congolese forces announced they had captured two Rwandan soldiers who had entered the country. Rwanda denied this, claiming the soldiers were kidnapped across the border. NBC News obtained a Rwandan military report that admitted that these soldiers were captured while taking part in an M23 attack on barracks at Rumangabo military base. The internal report says members of the Rwanda Defence Force crossing the border were supposed to leave cellphones behind and strip identifying insignia from their uniforms. It recommends punishment for the soldiers' commander for failing to ensure the captured soldiers did so. In a bid to remove witnesses, Rwandan soldiers forced Congolese villagers to evacuate areas they occupied, according to a contractor hired to provide intelligence for the Congolese military. Operations like this drove hundreds of thousands from their homes. 'This is not business as usual in the DRC,' Antoine Sagot-Priez, DRC country director for the aid agency Concern Worldwide, said in March, commenting on the mass displacement. 'We need people to know what is happening here.' These villagers ended up living in 17 camps around the city of Goma, the capital of Congo's North Kivu province, that would eventually swell to hold 400,000 to 500,000 people. Reports drawn up by the same contractor state that Rwandan forces were moving their mortars in and out of Congo — sometimes each day — apparently to avoid detection. Rwandan soldiers also often don outfits usually worn by the M23 rebels. Much of the information used in this report was compiled by Western military experts, who included former French army officers, Romanians, Poles and Bulgarians, hired by Congo's President Felix Tshisekedi in 2022 when he realized his army was disastrously losing ground. They were assigned the task of protecting cities in the east and providing Congo's artillery with key information — thanks to a small fleet of Chinese drones. In March 2023, these new hires helped turn the tables on the Rwandans attacking the town of Sake, west of Goma, by hitting their mortar positions with Sukhoi fighter jets. The entire Rwandan force in Congo withdrew the following day. Military contractors believe this was the moment Rwanda — one of Africa's poorest states and heavily dependent on foreign aid — went on an international military shopping spree, placing orders in Poland and Turkey for sophisticated anti-missile systems, drones and signal-jamming equipment. Then in late 2023, Rwandan forces began returning to Congo. This time the numbers were 10 times higher than before — 3,000 to 5,000 men, according to the same military contractor. The Congolese army put its new drones to devastating use. Satellite imagery shows a sudden, dramatic increase in the number of graves at Kanombe Military Cemetery, Rwanda's main military burial ground in the capital, Kigali. It expanded by some 350 graves between mid-2023 and early 2024, according to a manual count carried out by NBC News. The images also show that from late 2021 to today, the cemetery has added 900 graves, even though the country says it is not engaged in any military conflict in Congo. Rwanda's government spokesperson declined to comment on the fresh graves, saying: 'Speculation about a military cemetery in Kigali has no basis in reality.' The DRC's air superiority did not last long. According to senior Congolese army officers, Rwanda used the opportunity presented by a U.S.-negotiated truce to install Chinese-made Yitian anti-missile systems in Congo. The addition in early 2024 of GPS-jamming equipment turned the war's tide, making it nearly impossible for the DRC's hired contractors to deploy their drone fleet. 'The new equipment changed everything,' said Gen. Sylvain Ekenge, a Congolese army spokesman. 'When we were asked by the Americans for a ceasefire to calm things down, the Rwandans used it as a chance to bring in these systems.'

Every parent's nightmare as respected teacher exposed as paedophile who preyed on young girls
Every parent's nightmare as respected teacher exposed as paedophile who preyed on young girls

Wales Online

time7 hours ago

  • Wales Online

Every parent's nightmare as respected teacher exposed as paedophile who preyed on young girls

Every parent's nightmare as respected teacher exposed as paedophile who preyed on young girls Simon Clark posed as a teenage boy on Snapchat to groom his victims into sending him naked images Simon Clark, 46, formerly of Ellesmere Port but now of no fixed address, was jailed for eight years with four more years on licence after admitting child sex offences (Image: Cheshire Police ) He was a highly respected French teacher. Simon Clark was head of department at Alun School in Mold, with a family at home. But the 46-year-old was harbouring a sickening secret. Clark was posing as a teenage boy on Snapchat in order to entice girls into sending him sexual images. Chester Crown Court heard he preyed on 26 youngsters, aged as young as 10. The father-of-two's wife has since divorced him, his career is over, and he is now behind bars. A judge today sentenced him to eight years in prison, with a further four years to be spent on licence. The paedophile teacher kept his head bowed as he was jailed. The court today [Friday] heard Clark pretended to be a 14-year-old boy using a fake Snapchat profile with the name 'Jamie_jones6968' to send hundreds of explicit messages to girls, persuading some to send sexual images in return. Don't miss a court report by signing up to our crime newsletter here . Judge Simon Berkson said he had no doubt his offending would have continued if he hadn't been stopped after the mother of one victim noticed an unknown man had asked her daughter for a naked photograph and reported him to police. Article continues below It was every parent's nightmare, he said. Simon Clark, 46, of no fixed address, outside Chester Crown Court where he admitted 29 child sex offences The case against Clark began in January, 2023, when police in North Wales were contacted by the concerned parent. Initial enquires suggested that the suspect was living in the Cheshire area, so the case was passed to Cheshire Police. An investigation was subsequently launched by detectives from the Online Child Abuse Investigation Team (OCAIT) at Cheshire Police and during their enquiries officers established that Clark was the suspect in the case. A warrant was conducted at his home in May, 2023, and four devices were seized from the address. During subsequent analysis officers discovered that Clark had been posing as a teenager using the Snapchat account. The judge said the truth must have come as a "terrible shock" to the victims and their families. He branded Clark a "dangerous" offender. Clark was given an eight year term, with four more years on licence on his release, for inciting a child under 13 to engage in penetrative sexual activity. The remaining jail terms, which are all concurrent, range from 40 months to four months. Clark also received concurrent sentences of eight months, four months and four weeks for making indecent images in categories A, B and C. The judge told the defendant he represented a 'significant risk' to children. Judge Berkson said: 'It is, of course, every parent's worst nightmare, this sort of thing happening to their children. 'Many of the offences involve sexual communication, some involving inciting children to engage in sexual activity. This was well planned and sophisticated criminal behaviour. 'You clearly have a sexual interest from the sexual abuse of children and gain sexual gratification from it.' Clark's barrister, Jeremy Rawson, referred to a "black side" to him. He said: "He has lost everything as a result of this. "There's a black side to his character which is unrestrained and he gave into it and he bitterly regrets it." He went on: "It's a terribly sad case. It's sad for those children whose trust has been abused. It's sad for the parents of those children whose trust has been marred by this man. "On the other side of the coin, this is a man who had a future, who had responsibilities and who had an education." When he goes into custody then comes out he will have to "start again from nothing". ‌ Clark admitted 29 charges in total. He admitted one count of inciting a child under 13 to engage in penetrative sexual activity, two of inciting a child under 13 to engage in non-penetrative sexual activity and two counts of inciting a child under 16 to engage in non-penetrative sexual activity. He also admitted 21 counts of engaging in sexual communication with a child under 16, making 26 indecent images of children of Category A, making 29 indecent images of children of Category B and making 81 indecent images of children of Category C. Following the sentencing, Detective Constable Louise Murphy and Detective Constable Megan Griffiths, who led the investigation, said: 'Firstly, we would like to praise the victims in this case for the bravery and courage that they have shown throughout this investigation. ‌ "Clark was a teacher, he held a position of trust, and the messages we recovered clearly showed that he was well aware that his victims were all under the age of 16, but despite this he continued his crimes in order to satisfy his own warped sexual desires. 'It was apparent throughout the investigation that Clark is a sexual predator who preyed on young girls, with no regard for the effects his actions would have on the victims or their families. 'While they will never be able to forget what he did, we hope the sentence handed to Clark will provide the victims with some closure and allow them to move forward with their lives.' ‌ An NSPCC spokesperson said: 'As a teacher Clark had a duty to keep children safe. 'Instead for seven years he posed as a teenage boy on a social media platform, using his fake profile to target and groom young girls before persuading them to send naked images of themselves. 'This kind of sexual abuse can have a devastating impact on the victims and it is vital all the children involved in this case have access to the support they need to move forwards with their lives. Article continues below 'This case also highlights the need for social media sites to be doing much more to protect children and prevent offenders like Clark from using their platforms to carry out their crimes.'

Ex-Man Utd star Nemanja Matic handed ban after covering anti-homophobia sign
Ex-Man Utd star Nemanja Matic handed ban after covering anti-homophobia sign

Daily Mirror

time8 hours ago

  • Daily Mirror

Ex-Man Utd star Nemanja Matic handed ban after covering anti-homophobia sign

Nemanja Matic covered up an anti-homophobia logo during Lyon's final game of the season, with Ligue 1 chiefs coming down hard on the former Manchester United star Former Manchester United star Nemanja Matic has been handed a four-match ban for covering up an anti-homophobia logo on his Lyon shirt. The midfielder joined the French side 18 months ago from Ligue 1 rivals Rennes. Matic has been a key player for Lyon, even captaining them on occasions. He was brought on as a late substitute in their final day triumph over Angers, which helped them secure qualification for the Europa League. ‌ The final day was Ligue 1's dedicated period to show support for the LGBT+ community. The games coincided with International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia on 17 May. ‌ Clubs put a rainbow patch on their shirt sleeves, as well as a symbol which had the word 'homophobia' in French crossed out with a red line and 'football' underneath. Matic appeared on the pitch with a piece of white material covering the rainbow logo. The 36-year-old was blasted for the move by France's sports minister Marie Barsacq, who said: ' Football has a massive platform, and the (French Football) Federation is determined to put this issue on the clubs' and supporters' agenda. 'Homophobic insults and behaviour are no longer acceptable. Society has evolved, and the language in football must change with it. There's a full range of sanctions available, and they must be applied.' He was subsequently charged by the Ligue de Football Professionnel (LFP), which governs French football. Their disciplinary committee have now confirmed the punishment, with Matic handing a two-match ban, with a further two matches suspended. He has also agreed to participate in an awareness-raising campaign on the fight against homophobia within six months. An LFP statement read: 'After hearing the player, the Commission sanctioned him with a two-match suspension and a two-match suspended sentence. ‌ 'Furthermore, the Commission offered the player—who immediately agreed during the hearing—to participate, within six months, in an awareness-raising campaign on the fight against homophobia in football, in collaboration with an expert association working alongside the LFP throughout the season with clubs and supporters.' Le Havre's Ahmed Hassan has been handed the same punishment after also covering up the rainbow logo on his shirt. Homophobia remains a huge problem in football, with Josh Cavallo, the first-ever top-flight star to come out, urging players to stand with LGBT+ people. 'The thing I would say to them is this could be your brother, it could be your mum or dad or sister who is experiencing this or going through this. To see them taking it away is bascially saying they're not included or accepted,' he told Mirror Football in an exclusive interview last year. ‌ 'So it is quite hurtful. They don't realise how impactful that could be to the LGBT+ community. It breaks my heart every time I see something like that. It's not on. If you're a football player, you have certain responsibilities. 'There's certain things you can or can't say on the pitch because you'll get sent off. There's things you can and can't do in the public right as a professional athlete. So doing that for me, is disgusting. 'It's just saying you don't like associating yourself with a certain group or people, which for me is my life. So, I find it quite disgusting. Everyone wants to be your friend, everyone wants to be an ally, but when it comes to the times we to speak up together, or need support, that's when we count on our allies.'

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store