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Anthony Stokes Pleads Guilty To Assaulting Elvis Presley Impersonator

The former Celtic forward, now at Blackburn Rovers, is in court on a charge of assaulting a man dressed as Elvis outside a Dublin nightclub, which is apparently a crime.
Anthony Stokes, almost certainly not lunging at an Elvis impersonator just out of shot // PA Images

In this week's most surreal news since the election of Donald Trump to a significant position of public office, Anthony Stokes has pleaded guilty to assaulting an Elvis Presley impersonator.

The BBC reports that the former Celtic forward, now playing for struggling Blackburn Rovers in the Championship, stands accused of causing bodily harm to Anthony Bradley – the counterfeit Elvis in question – after an altercation outside a Dublin nightclub in June 2013. In Ireland, assaulting a man dressed as Elvis is considered a very serious crime.

Stokes is reportedly due to be sentenced on 20 December. The case had originally been listed to go to trial in late November, but Stokes pleaded guilty at an arraignment hearing on Thursday.

The Republic of Ireland international, whose permanent residence is in Claremont Terrace, Glasgow, has now been released on continuing bail. Some have speculated that, were he alive to see the sorry treatment of modern Elvis impersonators, the King himself would have heartily disapproved.