A BRUTE rugby ace used tracking systems on his girlfriend’s phone to keep tabs on her movements during a twenty month campaign of domestic abuse, a court heard.
Glasgow Warriors and Scotland rugby union player Rufus McLean insisted on knowing where Cara Haston, 21, was at all times and challenged her when she turned the tracking system off, Edinburgh Sheriff Court heard.
Prosecutors said the 22-year-old winger - who faces the axe from his club - called her a “b**** and a sl** and sent her abusive text and social media messages.
He also left his victim with a burst lip and black eye after pushing her off him during one incident.
McLean - capped three times for Scotland - pleaded guilty last month to engaging in a course of abusive behaviour where he was “emotionally abusive and controlling” between April 2019 and January 2021.
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He repeatedly shouted, swore and acted aggressively towards her, controlled her movements, seized her on the body and repeatedly pushed her on the body to her injury.
He insisted she enable location tracking services on her phone to allow him to track her movements and repeatedly called her derogatory and offensive names and sent her abusive messages via text and social media.
And he admitted telling her who she could not meet with, told her what clothes she could wear and requested access to her social media accounts.
A prosecutor said while she was on holiday in Spain in 2019 with friends he saw a photograph of her on social media, “took exception” to what she was wearing and told her to change, saying “she looked like a slag”.
And when she refused and went out anyway he started calling and messaging her and her friends telling her to leave a club and go home to change.
Then in January 2021 at a flat in Glasgow his victim woke him up and he reacted by pushing her off of him “causing her lip to burst”, the court was told.
When he viewed her Instagram at a flat in Edinburgh in March 2020 he saw a photo of her with a male she had been on a date with previously when they had been on a break.
The fiscal said he refused to tell her where he got the picture and he became more irate.
The prosecutor said: “He thereafter repeatedly pushed her on the chest before she fell on to the bed, whereafter he continued to shout at her and she pleaded with him to stop.”
She got on to her feet and followed him and he “grabbed her wrist and pushed her back”.
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McLean left and cops were called by a neighbour.
Officers arrived and found her “crying” and with bruises.
She said that during the relationship McLean would message her friends requesting them to tell him where she was and “insisted” she have location services on her phone on.
They added: “On occasions where she did turn it off the accused would call her to demand she turn it back on.”
McLean’s defence agent Ian Smith urged sheriff Matthew Auchincloss to grant an absolute discharge, meaning he wouldn’t have a criminal record.
He said there would be “disciplinary procedures” for him.
He added: “What I suspect will happen is there will be a call for his career to end.”
But the sheriff told the court it “wasn’t a one-off incident” and deferred sentence until next month to allow a report to be prepared on McLean’s suitability for the Caledonian Men’s Project aimed at addressing the behaviour of male domestic abusers.
McLean was born in Boston, USA, but grew up in Scotland, attending posh Merchiston Castle boarding school.
He has been suspended by Warriors over the conviction and wasn’t named in Gregor Townsend’s squad for next month’s Six Nations.
Glasgow Warriors issued a statement this evening which read: "Rufus McLean is suspended from all club activity and is unavailable for selection following a guilty plea to charges under the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018 in December 2022.
"Glasgow Warriors does not condone abuse of any kind and therefore, along with Scottish Rugby, immediately suspended the player following his plea.
"An internal investigation has been instigated and a disciplinary hearing will be held this week.
"Legal proceedings in this matter are not concluded therefore no further comment will be made at this time".
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