Welsh international rugby star Ian Gough has been ordered to pay STG2,130 ($A3,890) in fines and costs after attacking his beauty queen ex-girlfriend just days after she got engaged to pop star Dane Bowers.
The 37-year-old player grabbed and pushed former Miss Wales Sophia Cahill against his van as he dropped their two-year-old son Gabriel off at her house in South Croydon in south London January 5.
Gough, who was found guilty of assault after a short trial at the court last month, is appealing against the conviction, his lawyer said.
Cahill said she was so shaken up by the attack she fled in tears back to the home she shares with 1990s singer Bowers, to whom she got engaged over the Christmas break.
She did not attend Gough's sentencing at Croydon Magistrates' Court in south London on Thursday but a victim impact statement read out on her behalf said she has suffered from anxiety and panic attacks since the incident.
Prosecutor Christian Wheeliker said the medication she must take for them means she is unable to drive, affecting her work as a TV presenter.
Cahill also complained of becoming the target of harassment by Gough's family and the victim of allegations on social media.
Wheeliker said that, as a professional rugby player, Gough - who split up with Cahill in 2011, when she was pregnant with their son - was "by definition a powerful and strong man" while Cahill was "a small lady".
But Mark Haslam, defending Newport Gwent Dragons player Gough, contested Cahill's claim that she cannot drive, saying she had been spotted behind the wheel of her white Jeep in Swansea on Tuesday.
He described the assault as "one isolated incident" which happened during one of many meetings between the former couple as they picked up or dropped off their son.
He said Gough was late dropping the toddler off and the defendant reacted when Cahill went to get the child out of his van because he liked to do this himself as part of his "ritual".
"He is a loving father and on this occasion all he was trying to achieve was his normal way of saying goodbye to his son as he handed him over," Haslam said.
"It is perfectly clear the physical contact was very limited and over a very short space of time."
He said Cahill suffered no signs of physical injury from the attack and Gough was of previous good character with no convictions or cautions.
Sentencing him, chairwoman of the bench Cheryl Southern-Petty said no statutory aggravating factor had been found and there was no evidence of premeditation.
She added that Gough was of "excellent character".
He was fined STG1,050 ($A1,920), and ordered to pay a STG105 ($A190) victim surcharge along with a STG775 ($A1,415) contribution to prosecution costs and STG200 ($A365) in compensation to Cahill.
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