Burgess intimidation conviction quashed by Australian court

© Reuters/John Sibley FILE PHOTO: England’s Sam Burgess during training

SYDNEY (Reuters) – Retired England rugby international Sam Burgess had his conviction for intimidating his former wife’s father overturned on appeal on Friday, local media reported.

Burgess, who represented England in both rugby league and union and enjoyed a high-profile career in Australia’s National Rugby League, was placed on a two-year good behaviour bond by a New South Wales magistrates court in February.

The 32-year-old’s sentence was quashed by a district court on Friday on the grounds that there was reasonable doubt the incident, which was alleged to have occurred after Burgess visited his children, had happened.

Goulburn District Court Judge Mark Williams said the case came down to the word of the two men and that Burgess’s version of events was “at least, reasonably possible”, the Australian Associated Press reported.

(Reporting by Nick Mulvenney, editing by Peter Rutherford)