6ft 5in, 18st England rugby star menaced father-in-law
AN ENRAGED former England rugby star issued a ‘terrifying’ threat to his father-in-law as his marriage broke down, a court was told yesterday.
Sam Burgess, who is 6ft 5ins and weighs 18-and-a-half stone, clashed with Mitchell Hooke at his home.
Burgess, 32, had tried to see his two children at Mr Hooke’s property following a bitter separation from his wife, Phoebe, but was asked to leave before she returned.
Mr Hooke, 65, told the court in Australia that his own calm words were repelled by the £180,000-ayear former rugby league captain saying: ‘F*** you. I’m going to get you. You orchestrated all of this.’
He added: ‘Six foot five, 118 kilograms, threatening to hit me – I was terrified. I had never felt fear like it. My whole body went cold.’
Magistrate Robert Rabbidge said that ‘an enraged, angry Sam Burgess would indeed be a frightening figure to most Australians’. Burgess had denied intimidating Mr Hooke with the intention of causing physical or mental harm, but he was found guilty and was put on a two-year good behaviour bond.
He left the court in Moss Vale, south of Sydney, saying he was ‘confused’ by the conviction and had already appealed against it. Burgess originally played rugby league for the Bradford Bulls before moving to Australia to join film star Russell Crowe’s South Sydney Rabbitohs in 2010.
He was a star player in Australia, but in 2014 he switched codes to play rugby union for Bath on a £500,000-a-year contract.
He also won five rugby union caps, and in 2015 was part of the England squad that became the first World Cup host nation in history to crash out of the tournament in the pool stage.
Afterwards, Burgess returned to Australia and rugby league.
Phoebe Burgess’s sister Harriet told the court that during the incident in 2019 she had heard Burgess shouting from the house and saw him standing ‘in a menacing stance’ over her father.
She said she heard Burgess say: ‘What kind of grandfather are you? I’m going to get you.’ Burgess, who slumped in his chair as he was convicted, said through his lawyer Phillip Boulten that he had not threatened to ‘get’ Mr Hooke.
Burgess’s lawyers told the court that Mr Hooke and Phoebe Burgess had set out to harm the player’s career and reputation. That included going to the media to make damaging claims about him.
The player and his Australian wife were married in 2015 but separated three years later. They had rekindled their relationship by April 2019 only to split permanently six months later.
Burgess was forced to retire in 2019 due to injury. Last October, he stepped down as assistant coach for the Rabbitohs when Australian rugby league officials and police opened investigations into allegations of drug use and violence.
The Australian newspaper reported that the club had covered up the claims, something Burgess has strongly denied.