Former Springbok and Canada centre Christian Stewart faces a charge after he allegedly beat a man dating his ex-wife.
|||Cape Town -
Former Springbok and Canada centre Christian Stewart faces a charge of assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm after he allegedly beat a Hout Bay financial adviser dating his ex-wife.
Alan Mewett laid a charge at the Hout Bay police station after he claimed he was beaten and kicked during an altercation with Stewart on Sunday.
Dismissing the allegations as “ill-considered, unfounded and denied”, Stewart’s lawyer, Derek Wille, painted a different picture of the complainant - one with a series of protection orders against him.
Wille said: “Stewart acted in self-defence during the incident and a number of independent eyewitnesses will confirm his version.”
Stewart handed himself to authorities on Wednesday and was released on a warning to appear in the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court on Monday.
Provincial police spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel André Traut confirmed that a 48-year-old man had been charged and released on a warning.
After the incident, Mewett obtained an interim protection order from the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday, following what he called “months of harassment and threats”.
Mewett said the interim court order prohibited the former Springbok, who has also played for Canada and conducts charity auctions, from “accosting or making any physical contact; or intimidating, threatening, insulting or otherwise verbally abusing him”.
Speaking on behalf of his client, Wille said: “We are constrained at this stage to point out that the complainant, Mr Mewett, has a criminal record for, inter alia, assault, and has a number of protection orders and interdicts against him in the context of past acts of aggression on his part.”
Mewett confirmed that he has a previous conviction in Durban, which is currently on appeal.
warda.meyer @inl.co.za
Cape Argus