The former Scotland rugby international Stuart Hogg has admitted abusing his estranged wife over the course of five years.

Hogg, 32, had been due to stand trial at Selkirk Sheriff Court on Monday but pleaded guilty to a single charge when he appeared at the court.

The father-of-four arrived at court accompanied by his parents, Margaret and John, and admitted a single charge of domestic abuse, between 2019 and 2024 at locations including Hawick, Scottish Borders, and Bearsden, Glasgow. The ex-Scotland captain, who plays for the French club Montpellier, now lives abroad and is in the process of divorce proceedings, the court heard.

Hogg stood in the dock wearing a bandage on his hand and a Remembrance Day poppy, as he admitted a single charge which said he “did engage in a course of behaviour which was abusive of your ex-partner, Gillian Hogg” and that he “did shout and swear in an aggressive manner, track her movements [and] send her messages which were alarming and distressing in nature”.

The court heard Hogg berated his wife for “not being fun” after going on drinking binges with his colleagues, and sent “in excess of 200 text messages in a few hours despite having been asked to leave her alone” and that Mrs Hogg had a panic attack due to the messages. Prosecutor Drew Long said the couple argued about where they would live, and that Hogg criticised his wife for “not being fun” in a household with three children under the age of three years old.

Mr Long told the court: “Stuart Hogg and Gillian Hogg are a married couple in the process of a divorce. They have four children. Over the course of their marriage they lived in Hawick, Scottish Borders, Glasgow and Exeter, before moving back to the Borders where they split in 2023. They were living in Glasgow where they moved to further Hogg’s career. They would fall into dispute about where the family should live.”

He said that Mrs Hogg was “scared” of her husband when he became angry and would “wish it was morning so he would sober up”. Mr Long said that the couple moved to Exeter in 2019 with their three young children, all aged under three years old, but Hogg’s “behaviour deteriorated” as he went out partying with colleagues.

The prosecutor told the court Hogg would “shout and swear and accuse her of not being fun” for not joining in drinking, and that Mrs Hogg’s family “noticed a change in her”. In 2022, Mrs Hogg went on a night out and was bombarded with text messages from her husband which “caught the attention of the people she was with”, the court heard.

The following year, the couple moved to Hawick but Hogg used an app to track his wife and “questioned her whereabouts” while she was dropping the children off, Mr Long told the court.

In 2023, Mrs Hogg decided to leave the rugby player and sought advice from a domestic abuse service, the court heard. The prosecutor said, in September 2023, Hogg sent so many messages that it “led [Mrs Hogg] to have a panic attack”, and that Hogg “sent in excess of 200 texts in a few hours despite being asked to leave her alone”.

In February 2024, Hogg entered the family home despite being told not to and became “belligerent”, and Mrs Hogg sought legal advice, the court heard. On 21 February, police were called due to Hogg “shouting and swearing” and he was taken into custody and then placed on a bail order stipulating not to contact her, or to enter the family home. The court heard that in August 2024, Hogg was on a video call to his children and requested that they pass the device to Mrs Hogg, despite instructions not to contact her.

Defending Hogg, Angela Gray KC said: “The incidents in isolation would have been unlikely to reach the threshold required for a prosecution in the criminal courts. Mr Hogg accepts these incidents have in isolation fallen short of what is expected of a husband. It is accepted by Mr Hogg that his conduct, looked at within that framework [of Domestic Abuse Act 2018], was criminal in nature.”

She said that the “deteriorating” relationship had been subject to additional “scrutiny placed on it”, and that Hogg’s position was that his behaviour was “never intended to be abusive”, the court heard.

Sentence was deferred until 5 December at Jedburgh Sheriff Court. Sheriff Peter Paterson said: “You remain subject to bail conditions previously agreed.”

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