AN INTERNATIONAL rugby player has been convicted of assaulting a former Miss Wales at the Croydon home of ex-boyband singer Dane Bowers.
Ex-Welsh rugby star Ian Gough appeared at Croydon Magistrates' Court this afternoon (Tuesday) having denied assault by beating at an earlier hearing.
It was alleged the 37-year-old, capped 64 times by Wales, attacked his former partner Sophia Cahill – a former winner of Miss Wales now engaged to Bowers – at the Another Level singer's home in Kingswood Way, South Croydon, on January 5 this year.
Miss Cahill sobbed as she told the court how Gough had assaulted her as he returned their two-year-old son Gabriel, of whom they share custody, an hour late in his white VW campervan.
"I opened the passenger door and Ian just stormed round the front of the van, I was a little bit taken aback," she said.
"I went to get my son out his car seat. As I was unbuckling Gabriel, Ian grabbed me by the shoulder and chucked me back. He said 'get away'.
"I went to get him again and Ian grabbed me by the shoulder and flung me into the side of the door."
Miss Cahill said it aggravated a back injury she sustained in a car crash some days before.
About 10 minutes later she called police and Bowers sent Gough an angry text, which read: "Did you just lay your f****** hands on Sophie (sic)?"
Bowers told the court he had been watching from the window of his home.
"He basically grabbed Sophia and moved her away from the car. He had no reason or permission to grab her.
He said he felt "frustrated and a little bit useless" while watching on.
"Until she got to me, I didn't realise she was crying," he added.
Mark Haslan, defending, said Gough did not attack Miss Cahill, but instead told her not to lift their son because of her back injury and accused her of being abusive and swearing.
But she denied this, saying: "There is absolutely no way I can imagine Ian offering any kind of help to me."
Chairman of the bench Terry Carpenter said the magistrates' had found the evidence of Bowers and Miss Cahill "convincing".
Speaking as they left the court Gough's father Malcolm said he and his son "strongly disagree" with the verdict, calling it an "absolute travesty of justice".
Gough is due to be sentenced at the court on August 26.
Bowers, 34, has lived in the Croydon area for several years, having found fame in the late 1990s with boyband Another Level. He also worked on a couple of garage tracks with Spice Girl Victoria Beckham.
