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Ben Stokes tells jury he had at least 10 drinks on night of brawl Ben Stokes tells jury he had at least 10 drinks on night of brawl
(about 3 hours later)
The England cricketer Ben Stokes has taken to the witness stand for the first time during his trial for affray, telling the jury he had at least seven vodka and mixer drinks and two or three beers in the period leading up to a street brawl. The England cricketer Ben Stokes has told a jury he had drunk at least seven vodka and mixer drinks and “two or three pints” of beer during a night which ended in a street brawl.
Stokes began to give evidence minutes after one of his co-defendants, Ryan Hale, was found not guilty of affray, with a judge ruling there was not enough evidence to support a conviction in his case. Taking to the witness box for the first time during his trial for affray, Stokes maintained he had only engaged in a fight because he was protecting fellow England player Alex Hales and a gay couple the pair had met earlier in the evening outside a nightclub.
Hale, who was knocked out by Stokes in Bristol last September and told police officers he feared Stokes “could have killed” during the fight, smiled after hearing the jury foreman deliver the verdict, following instruction from the judge, Peter Blair QC. The 27-year-old started throwing punches after seeing Ryan Ali, 28, waving a beer bottle and moving threateningly towards Hales, a jury heard. He said he was aware Ali’s friend Ryan Hale, a former serviceman, was also holding a glass beer bottle and that he had heard the pair directing homophobic abuse at “camp” couple William O’Connor and Kai Barry.
Stokes told a jury he was “not in a bad mood” as they were shown a picture of him pulling a facial expression as he stood for a picture on the same evening as the incident in question. He posed with a nightclub worker, who was a cricket fan, alongside his fellow England players Jimmy Anderson, Jake Ball and Alex Hale outside Pryzm nightclub in Bristol. “Mr Ali was running towards Alex with the bottle above his head like he was going to hit him,” Stokes said. “I tried to get between Alex and Mr Ali and then Mr Ali turned around and swung at one of the gay couple with a bottle.
“I think he was the guy who stands outside clubs saying: ‘Do you want entry?’” Stokes told the jury. “Before we walked into Pryzm he asked for a photograph. I was not in a bad mood, I’m not sure why I did that face.” “As soon as I’ve seen Mr Ali physically hit someone, that’s when I took the decision I needed to get involved. I felt under threat and whatever I did was to keep myself and other people around me safe.”
Under ordinary circumstances Stokes would have been looking forward to playing in front of 30,000 at a sold out Lord’s on Thursday where England begin their second Test against India. He sent a tweet to wish his teammates good luck, making special mention of Ollie Pope, the 20-year-old called up in his absence. Stokes said he had been drinking before the incident in September last year but was not drunk. He had consumed “some” beer at Bristol county ground after England beat the West Indies.
Stokes and the other remaining defendant, Ryan Ali, deny affray. After driving back to the team hotel, a group of three or four players and some of their partners, including Stokes and his then fiancee, now wife, Clare Ratcliffe, had dinner where a further “two or three” pints were consumed by Stokes.
He arrived at court, a short walk from the city centre hotel where he is staying for the duration of the trial, expected to last seven days, hand in hand with his wife, Clare Ratcliffe. She sat in the front row of the observers’ box during proceedings. Several players visited Mbargo nightclub in the city, where Stokes said he had “five or six” vodka and lemonade drinks. He and Hales later visited Pryzm nightclub, a short taxi ride away where Stokes had “probably more than one” vodka drink before the pair returned to Mbargo at 2.08am where they were denied entry because the door staff said it was too late.
Earlier the jury heard Stokes “could have killed” as he punched two men unconscious on the street. Hale, an Afghanistan veteran, told police officers in an interview four days after the fight: “I had a constant headache, which I’m probably going to go and get checked out again. Stokes told a jury the pair then met O’Connor and Barry outside the club and that they exchanged light hearted insults about each other’s attire but denied mimicking the couple’s “flamboyant” gestures in a homophobic manner, as suggested by the prosecution. A pair of bright white leather trainers with gold padlocks attached to the heel were shown to the court by Gordon Cole QC, representing Stokes.
“It’s the emotions of it all,” he added. “The fact I’ve been attacked. Watching the video was shocking. I’m a dad. He could have killed me. I don’t know why he didn’t stop. You hear about it all the time, he could have. Just the way he was acting in the video, he could have beaten the living hell out of me. It’s shocking to see someone doing that to someone who didn’t do anything wrong. It’s quite shocking to think that I’ve been put in a situation like that.” “I get told from quite a lot of teammates that I dress the worst in team,” Stokes said, “I’m used to it.”
Hale, from Bristol, said he suffered a mini-stroke the month before the incident in August last year that resulted in intermittent memory loss. He claimed to recall very little of the fight after being punched to the ground by Stokes but the jury heard his account of earlier in the evening when he and Ali were drinking inside Mbargo nightclub. The jury heard the cricketers used a smartphone to try to navigate their way to a casino before encountering co-defendant Ali, along with Hale, O’Connor and Barry.
Hale recalls meeting a gay couple, William O’Connor and Kai Barry, and the jury heard the trio and Ali had been sharing “banter.” “I don’t remember specific words but it was very clear that the words being used towards these two gentlemen were about them being gay,” Stokes said. The exchange turned physical with Ali, who was knocked unconscious by a blow to the head from Stokes, receiving hospital treatment for facial injuries, including a fractured eye socket and cracked tooth.
“The first thing he [Barry] did was put his hand on my knob. I’m an ex-soldier, to me it’s banter,” he said. “It did not offend me at all. He was pinching my arse and I grabbed him and said: ‘You’re coming home with me.’ He said: ‘Just because I’m gay doesn’t mean I’m going home with any other bloke.’” It was ruled there was not enough evidence to support a conviction of Hale, an Afghanistan veteran, who had also been charged with affray but was found not guilty by a jury on the instructions of the judge, Peter Blair QC.
Hale, 27, said the four men were together on Queen’s Road, around the corner from Mbargo, when they were approached by Stokes. Hale told police officers he feared Stokes “could have killed” somebody during the fight. “It’s the emotions of it all,” he said in a police interview last September. “Watching the video was shocking. I’m a dad. He could have killed. I don’t know why he didn’t stop. The way he was acting in the video, he could have beaten the living hell out of me.
“I remember saying: ‘I don’t want any trouble,’” Hale said. “Then he attacked me and Ryan [Ali] intervenes, but clearly it was the other way round. I just remember them crossing the road and there was a commotion. I don’t know why it happened. “It’s shocking to see someone doing that to someone who didn’t do anything wrong. It’s quite shocking to think that I’ve been put in a situation like that.”
“I am pulling him off because he is going to cane his face in and the gay guys are trying to pull me away,” he said. “I am telling him to stop. He is having a go at Ryan and I am trying to stop any fight, to stop him getting hurt. That’s the moment I get smashed to the face.” Stokes, of Castle Eden, Durham, and Ali, of Bristol, deny affray.
The trial continues.The trial continues.
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