Ben Stokes arrives at court to explain why he beat two men senseless outside Bristol nightclub

A soldier knocked out in a street brawl by Ben Stokes walked free today after a judge told a jury to find him not guilty of affray minutes before the cricketer took the stand.

Judge Peter Blair QC told Bristol Crown Court ‘there has been no evidence whatsoever’ that Ryan Hale, 28, carried out any unlawful violence during a drunken brawl with the England cricketer in September last year.

Earlier Hale told the jury he feared for his life when Stokes attacked him and his friend Ryan Ali, 27, claiming he was an ‘innocent bystander getting assaulted brutally for nothing’.

The former soldier said he was knocked out cold and said: ‘I thought he could have killed me. I don’t know why he didn’t stop. He could have beaten the living hell out of me’.

He added: ‘I was in the Army, I know what self-defence is, you can use reasonable force. If someone is with a bottle and you want to stop it, once you’ve disarmed him that’s it’. 

It came as the moment Ben Stokes was put in handcuffs and sat in a patrol car by a police officer arresting him was released today. 

This is the moment Ben Stokes was put in handcuffs by a police officer who told him: ‘A guy over there was covered in blood and I’ve been told you punched him’

Ben Stokes arrives in court with his wife Clare today where he will give evidence about a street brawl where he left two men unconscious

Ben Stokes arrives in court with his wife Clare today where he will give evidence about a street brawl where he left two men unconscious

Ryan Ali, 28, and Ryan Hale, 27, (left to right today) and are also on trial for affray and are accused of bring bottles and a metal pole to the fight

Ryan Ali, 28, and Ryan Hale, 27, (left to right today) and are also on trial for affray and are accused of bring bottles and a metal pole to the fight

Pictured: Ben Stokes is captured on CCTV striking Hale, who today said he feared he would die

Pictured: Ben Stokes is captured on CCTV striking Hale, who today said he feared he would die

PC Stacey Alway told him: ‘A guy over there was covered in blood and I’ve been told you punched him’. 

Stokes then says it was because they were ‘abusing my two friends for being gay’ and then asks for his handcuffs to be loosened.

England star Alex Hales told police he didn’t see the Stokes fight despite CCTV ‘showing him kicking man’

England cricketer Alex Hales told police he did not witness the alleged fight between his team-mate Ben Stokes and two other men, a court has heard.

The Nottinghamshire batsman told a uniformed officer, who had just arrested all-rounder Stokes for assault, that he had turned up after the fracas had finished.

But jurors at Bristol Crown Court have seen CCTV footage showing Mr Hales, who was never arrested or charged in connection with the incident, with Stokes and kicking a man on the ground.

Describing what he saw  RyanHale told police that he saw Stokes’s England team-mate, Alex Hales, ‘stamp’ on friend Ryan Ali’s face as he lay on the floor.

‘They were kicking him in the face. I saw Hales with a flat foot, stamping on his face. I said ‘Oi, oi, oi’,’ he said.

‘Hales runs off across the road. I grabbed Stokes, he is a big lad, and (I said) ‘Leave it” and was then punched himself

The cricketer will give evidence about why he left two men unconscious during the drunken street brawl following England’s win over West Indies earlier that day.

Hale told police he and Ali had been out celebrating his promotion at work and had left Mbargo when the nightclub closed.

He said they were walking up Queen’s Road with two gay men, William O’Connor and Kai Barry.

‘The first thing he did was put his hand on my k**b. I’m an ex-soldier, to me its 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’. I was like, it’s fine, no problem and just carried on walking.’

Hale added: ‘I remember two guys coming from the road and I remember saying ‘I don’t want no trouble’. I don’t remember which order it was in. ‘I don’t want no trouble’. 

‘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’.

Hale said Mr O’Connor and Mr Barry – the men he is accused of abusing – pulled him to help him up. 

Stokes told police he felt ‘under threat of immediate attack’ moments before he beat two men senseless on a drunken night out in Bristol.  

He  again asserted in an official police statement hours later that he had intervened when he overheard Hale and Ali verbally abusing Kai Barry and William O’Connor – who Stokes had never met before – in the street.

He said tempers flared when Ali told him: ‘Shut the f*** up and f*** off or I’ll bottle you.’ 

Ben Stokes (pictured) and Ryan Ali are both facing court

Ben Stokes and Ryan Ali (pictured) are both facing court

Ben Stokes (left after the fight in police custody) left Ryan Ali (right in the aftermath) with a shattered eye socket and bloodied eye

The sportsman's hand is pictured after he was arrested as today police shared pictures of his and other injuries 

The sportsman’s hand is pictured after he was arrested as today police shared pictures of his and other injuries 

Ryan Ali's eye was injured in the incident

Ben Stokes' injuries were revealed today

Ryan Ali (left) was injured during the row as England cricketer Ben Stokes’ injuries were also revealed (right)

He described how Ali lurched towards him brandishing a bottle, before Hale grabbed him from behind, and would later be seen clutching a metal pole.

‘I felt the need to defend myself,’ he said in his first police statement hours after the fight. ‘I felt I was going to be attacked. I didn’t feel I had an option to leave in the heat of the situation.

‘Obviously it all happened very quickly but I am clear that I felt under threat of immediate attack from both these men and I did what I did only in order to defend myself.’

But community support officer Andrew Spure, who was at a colleague’s leaving do at Mbargo nightclub in Bristol at the time, claimed Stokes was the ‘main aggressor’. 

In his statement written hours later, Mr Spure told how he had left the club and ‘saw a group of people fighting’, adding: ‘One of the males struck the other in the head with a clenched fist’.

Bristol Crown Court heard it was Stokes who had struck Ali, knocking him to the floor and leaving him with a shattered eye socket.

Asked about separating Stokes and Ali, Mr Spure said: ‘The individual seemed to be the main aggressor’.

Stokes and teammate Alex Hales were together (pictured on the night) after celebrating with the England cricket team, who had just beaten the West Indies in a one-day international

Stokes and teammate Alex Hales were together (pictured on the night) after celebrating with the England cricket team, who had just beaten the West Indies in a one-day international

He said Ali ‘seemed to be trying to back away or get away from the situation’ before he was punched by Stokes.  

Stokes told police he had drunk ‘two or three’ pints and five vodka-mixer drinks on the night of the ruckus in Bristol’s upmarket Clifton area on the night of September 24 last year.

The England and Durham star faces a single count of affray alongside co-defendants Hale and Ali.

Stokes and teammate Alex Hales were together celebrating with the England cricket team, who had just beaten the West Indies in a one-day international in Bristol, when the fight happened.

Jurors at Bristol Crown Court yesterday heard Stokes’ police statements, which were made in the weeks after the fight.

In them, he told how he and Hales had been walking towards a casino when they overheard Hale and Ali verbally abusing Mr Barry and Mr O’Connor.

He said: ‘They weren’t shying away from it but they were obviously offended by the abuse being levelled towards them. What Ali and Hale were saying was far from harmless banter, it was nasty homophobic abuse.’

Stokes said he intervened and told Ali and Hale: ‘Leave it out – you shouldn’t be taking the p*** because they’re gay’. He claimed Ali replied: ‘Shut the f*** up and f*** off or I’ll bottle you’.

The all-rounder said when he saw Ali hit Mr Barry, ‘I decided that at this point matters had become too serious to ignore and that I had to intervene to stop Ryan Ali’.

Stokes said he scuffled with Ali on the floor before Hale, also holding a bottle, got involved. ‘At this point, I felt vulnerable and frightened. I was concerned for myself and others,’ he claimed.

‘The force I used in defending us was reasonable and entirely justified when the circumstances are viewed objectively,’ he added.

However, in his police statement Ali said he was the one who ‘felt threatened’ by Stokes.

Ben Stokes is pictured with the two men outside Mbargo nightclub in Bristol in September 

Ben Stokes is pictured with the two men outside Mbargo nightclub in Bristol in September 

CCTV footage shown to a jury at Bristol Crown Court today shows England cricketer Ben Stokes (pictured far left) allegedly mocking the 'camp gestures' of two gay clubbers outside a nightclub in Bristol on September 25 last year 

CCTV footage shown to a jury at Bristol Crown Court today shows England cricketer Ben Stokes (pictured far left) allegedly mocking the ‘camp gestures’ of two gay clubbers outside a nightclub in Bristol on September 25 last year 

CCTV footage shown to jurors at Bristol Crown Court appears to show Stokes holding some money in an alleged bribe

CCTV footage shown to jurors at Bristol Crown Court appears to show Stokes holding some money in an alleged bribe

The prosecution alleges the England star bullied the two men by mocking their 'camp gestures' and accused him of flicking his cigarette at them

The prosecution alleges the England star bullied the two men by mocking their ‘camp gestures’ and accused him of flicking his cigarette at them

He told officers: ‘I can’t recall what happened but from watching the video I seem to be in a defensive stance, as though something has happened prior to this video… I believe I felt threatened and it can clearly be heard…. I’ve got the bottle up and I’m saying ‘move back, move back’.

‘I’m not trying to attack anyone with the bottle, I’m purely saying ‘get back, move away’. I believe I was being threatened or I felt threatened and that’s the reason.’

The brawl left both men unconscious, and Ali with a fractured eye socket. Jurors were shown graphic photographs of their injuries taken in hospital shortly after.

And they were shown video footage from the body-worn camera of PC Stacey Alway, the officer who arrested Stokes at the scene of the bust-up.

In the video, PC Alway tells Stokes: ‘A guy over there was covered in blood and I’ve been told you punched him.’

Stokes replies: ‘Because he was abusing my two friends for being gay.’

He is swiftly handcuffed and put in the back seat of a marked police car. He asks the officer to loosen his right handcuff three times, at one point asking: ‘Are there any sort of cameras around?’

Fellow England cricketer Alex Hales – who is alleged to have kicked Ali in the head but is not on trial – told PC Alway: ‘I came after you guys turned up.’

When she told him to leave the scene, Mr Hales replied: ‘I feel bad. He’s my best friend. I saw him after everything happened.’

He was interviewed under caution, but not charged.

The court previously heard allegations that Stokes bullied the two gay revellers, throwing a cigarette at one and making mocking gestures at them, after swearing at a bouncer at the Mbargo club.

Stokes is due to give evidence today. All three men deny affray. The trial continues. 

 

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