Footballer fined for assault

Notts County footballer Lee Hughes has been fined after admitting assaulting a woman at a hotel, Britain's Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said.

The 36-year-old was arrested after police were called to his team’s hotel in Croydon, south London, on December 3 last year, the night before his team’s FA Cup match against Sutton United.

He pleaded guilty at Croydon Crown Court today to a charge of common assault at the Aerodrome Hotel in Purley Way, the CPS said.

Hughes, of Waterside Way, Nottingham, was fined £500 (€620) and ordered to pay £120 (€150) in prosecution costs. He has 28 days to pay the fine or could face 14 days’ imprisonment.

A second charge of sexual assault, which Hughes denied, was dropped after prosecution lawyers offered no evidence.

The footballer, who previously played for West Brom in the Premier League, was jailed in 2004 for causing death by dangerous driving.

Douglas Graham, a 56-year-old father-of-four, died after Hughes’s Mercedes car ploughed into the Renault in which he was a passenger.

After Hughes was released from prison in 2007, the striker restarted his football career at Oldham Athletic before joining Notts County in 2009.