England cricket player Ben Stokes and his wife Clare arrive at Bristol Crown Court today
England cricketer Ben Stokes today said he was looking up at the sky and talking to God after having at least ten drinks on the night of a street brawl.
During his affray trial the 27-year-old has already claimed he fought off an ‘attack with weapons’ after coming to the aid of two gay men being abused in Bristol.
The all-rounder said he was acting as peacemaker to protect two men he had just met when he feared for his safety and the scene descended into a brawl.
Stokes lashed out at Ryan Ali, 28, and Ryan Hale, 27 – knocking both men unconscious – in an act of self-defence, he told a jury, having confronted them over their ‘nasty’ homophobic language towards Kai Barry and William O’Connor.
Prosecutor Nicholas Corsellis suggested to Stokes that he had been angry, shouted and pointed at bouncer Andrew Cunningham who had refused to shake his hand.
He asked him if he had been angry in CCTV scenes of the incident shown to the court.
‘I don’t think you can tell if I’m angry,’ Stokes replied.
When the prosecutor asked what Stokes was looking at in the footage, he said: ‘I might just be looking at the night sky.’
Mr Corsellis said: ‘Who were you speaking to when you were looking at the night sky?’ Stokes replied: ‘God?’

Stokes takes down his umbrella after arriving at court for the continuation of his trial today
Mr Corsellis asked: ‘Mr Stokes, you are just in front of the jury, trying to cover up your actions. You know you were angry and this CCTV was you looking angry, isn’t it?’ Stokes answered: ‘No.’
Mr Corsellis suggested to him at Bristol Crown Court: ‘Mr Stokes, you seem to have a really significant memory blackout.’
He replied: ‘You could say that, yes’.
Giving evidence for a second day today, Stokes told the jury that he would have had at least ten drinks that night.
He said these were a bottle of beer after the game, two or three pints back at the hotel with a meal and five or six vodka and lemonades while out in Bristol.
‘I recall I potentially had some Jaegerbombs in Mbargo,’ Stokes told the jury.
Mr Corsellis suggested to Stokes that he could not remember exactly what happened because he was ‘actually really very drunk’. But Stokes replied: ‘No.’
Under cross-examination, Stokes said that he intervened because Ali and Hale had directed homophobic abuse at Mr O’Connor and Mr Barry, but could not say what those words were.

Stokes has been watched by his wife Clare from the front row of the public gallery in co
Mr Corsellis asked: ‘You don’t remember any of the words of the homophobic abuse that you assert took place.’
Stokes replied: ‘I am very clear that the words that were used were homophobic.’
The prosecutor said: ‘You don’t really remember significant parts of this incident, for example knocking Mr Ali out? Is that because you were really very drunk?’ Stokes replied: ‘No.’
Mr Corsellis asked: ‘Your lack of memory might be down to something else. You weren’t actually hit that evening, you weren’t struck to the head, you had no injury to the lip, forehead, eye or head?’
Stokes replied: ‘My injuries were nothing compared to Mr Ali.’
The prosecutor went on: ‘It is not a question of you memory being affected by injury, you were uninjured from the cricket match you played that day.
‘You didn’t suffer from memory loss problems, so how can you not remember striking Mr Ali with such force rendering him unconscious?’
Stokes replied: ‘I think the whole incident would have been clouded because it was such… there was a lot of people around… a lot of shouting.
‘I don’t remember every little detail which has gone on that night.’
The cricketer told the court he had not mocked or been homophobic towards Mr Barry and Mr O’Connor. He said he could not remember flicking his cigarette butt at them or knocking Ali unconscious a short time later.
Stokes insisted Ali was aggressive and homophobic towards Mr O’Connor and Mr Barry.
‘He was aggressive and violent towards me in what he said but he was definitely verbally aggressive with Mr Barry and Mr O’Connor,’ Stokes said. ‘It’s clearly in my statement that I admit to throwing multiple punches. At the time of that situation, I constantly felt under threat from Mr Ali.’
Stokes was asked about what Ali was doing in the moments before he knocked him out and he said he could not remember.
Mr Corsellis asked: ‘Is it because you are hiding behind your lack of recollection because you know full well you carried out a retaliatory attack upon those two men, first Mr Hale and then Mr Ali?’
Stokes replied: ‘No, all my actions were in self-defence and fearing for my safety.’

Ryan Ali arrives at Bristol Crown Court today
Mr Corsellis asked Stokes if he had a ‘significant memory blackout’ from the night in question. Stokes replied: ‘You could say that, yes.’
Mr Corsellis suggested that Stokes’s eyes were ‘glazed’ and his speech was slurred in the footage recorded on a body camera worn by a police officer when he was arrested, which the cricketer denied.
Stokes denied being out on a ‘mission’ and said what he wanted that evening was a ‘good night’ with his England teammates.
‘When we were trying to get back into Mbargo, I could not have been able to tell you how the night would have ended up,’ he told Mr Corsellis.
Mr Corsellis asked Stokes to tell the jury of six men and six women what homophobic abuse he heard shouted at Mr Barry and Mr O’Connor.
‘As I said, I can’t recollect anything specific but I’m very clear that the words being used were of a homophobic nature,’ Stokes said.
Mr Corsellis asked: ‘On the day of your arrest you were saying it was homophobic abuse.
‘You had your solicitor draft a letter where it was amplified to nasty homophobic abuse.
‘It has been nine months since the incident. You have, I’m sure, thought of this constantly. Please can you help the jury of what you mean and what was said?’


Stokes (left, after the fight in police custody) left Ryan Ali (right, in the aftermath) with a shattered eye socket and bloodied eye, the court was told
Stokes replied: ‘I can’t remember specific words, no.’
Mr Corsellis asked: ‘Is the case that nasty homophobic abuse was not being cast towards Mr O’Connor and Mr Barry?’
Stokes said: ‘No, it definitely was.’
The prosecutor asked Stokes what he had said to Ali and Mr Hale prior to the confrontation and what they had said in reply.
Stokes insisted Ali told him to ‘Shut the f*** up or I’ll bottle you’ after he told him to stop verbally abusing Mr O’Connor and Mr Barry.
Mr Corsellis asked: ‘Was it the case that you decided in the state you were in you were going to seek confrontation with Mr Ali and Mr Hale because that’s what you wanted to do?’ Stokes replied: ‘Absolutely not.’
Mr Corsellis asked Stokes about the footage recorded by student Max Wilson, which showed part of the alleged fight in which Alex Hales can repeatedly be heard shouting ‘Stokes’.
‘Was he shouting at you because everybody wanted you to stop,’ Mr Corsellis asked.
Stokes said he did not hear Mr Hales calling his name or trying to hold him back from confronting Ali.
‘You were asked yesterday by Mr Cole was there any stage in the incident you were enraged?’ Mr Corsellis asked.
Stokes replied: ‘Throughout this whole incident my whole focus was where Mr Ali was and where Mr Hale was, from the moment I was verbally threatened and my friend Alex was run at with a glass bottle.’
Mr Corsellis asked: ‘Were you enraged?’ Stokes replied: ‘No, at this time my sole focus was to protect myself.’
Mr Corsellis asked: ‘However this incident started, when you saw Mr Ali had a bottle and that he was threatening to Alex Hales and hit Kai Barry on the shoulder, you decided to get involved and after you had been on the ground and he (Mr Ali) disarmed you thought, ‘I am going to show you what violence is’ and you thought, ‘I am going to retaliate and I am going to punish you and hit you out of revenge’. Is that not the truth?’
Stokes replied: ‘Absolutely not.’
Mr Corsellis asked: ‘Is it what we see on the footage – an angry man who has lost all control?’ Stokes replied: ‘Absolutely not.’
Yesterday, the cricketer told Bristol Crown Court: ‘I initially got involved with a verbal altercation which then turned into an attack which did involve weapons – a glass bottle was used as a weapon – which then turned into a fight.
‘Throughout the whole time that I was using any force it was in the complete belief that these two gentlemen – who I had never met before – were willing to use weapons again as they had already.
‘I didn’t know … they could be carrying more weapons on them. They could decide to attack me at any time if I was to turn my back on either of these two.
‘While these two were in front of me I wasn’t going to let any opportunity to let these two individuals have that opportunity towards me. At all times I felt under threat from these two.’
Having been denied entry to a Bristol nightclub, Stokes and his England teammate Alex Hales – out celebrating a team win – started walking to a casino, the court heard.
They encountered Hale and Ali around the corner. Stokes claimed he overheard them using homophobic language against Mr Barry and Mr O’Connor, although he couldn’t remember the words used.
As he was quizzed on the night of the brawl, Stokes told a police officer he had intervened after seeing someone ‘abusing my two friends for being gay’.
He told the jury yesterday: ‘Mr Hale and Mr Ali were shouting homophobic comments towards these two and in return Mr O’Connor and Mr Barry were going back to them.

Stokes took the stand yesterday and said he had not been drunk, aggressive or homophobic
‘They weren’t obviously going to let them say what they were saying. I stepped in. [I said] ‘you shouldn’t take the p*** because they are gay’. I was told by Mr Ali along the lines of ‘shut the f*** up or I will bottle you’.
‘As soon as I see Mr Ali swing the bottle at someone and physically hit them with it, that’s when I took the decision that I needed to get involved.


Ali (left) was injured during the row as Stokes’s injuries were also revealed yesterday (right)
‘I took a swing at Mr Ali. He had run past one of my friends, with the bottle, attempting to hit him and then actually struck someone with the bottle.
‘I was trying to stop Mr Ali from doing damage to anyone with a glass bottle.’
Stokes denied taunting Mr Barry and Mr O’Connor, insisting he was the one being mocked for his designer trainers and his admitted questionable fashion sense.
The prosecution has accused Stokes of mimicking the flamboyant pair’s ‘camp’ mannerisms minutes before he ‘lost control’ and the brawl broke out.
Jurors were yesterday shown the Buscemi high-top trainers that Stokes was wearing in the early hours of September 25 last year.
The white Italian leather shoes, which feature a gold padlock on each heel, were held aloft by defence solicitor Gordon Cole QC.
Stokes, a father of two who plays county cricket for Durham, told jurors: ‘My attire on that night got mentioned. It was one of the gay couple.

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
‘I get told by quite a lot of my teammates that I dress the worst in the team. We both exchanged comments about what one another were wearing.’
Wearing a white shirt with a light blue shirt and tie as he took the stand yesterday, Stokes was watched by wife Clare Ratcliffe from the front row of the public gallery.
Stokes said he drank at least ten alcoholic drinks on the night of the incident, including two or three pints of lager and at least seven vodka-lemonades.
Asked by Mr Cole if he was homophobic, Stokes said: ‘No, absolutely not. The only comments between myself and the gay couple was what we had chosen to wear that night.’
He also denied humiliating nightclub doorman Andrew Cunningham, who said he and Hales couldn’t come in, adding: ‘I didn’t use the c-word towards him. I said to him ‘come on mate, I’ve got s*** tattoos as well, let us back in’.’
Mr Cole asked Stokes: ‘At any stage had you become enraged for any reason at all in the incident you had been involved with, from leaving Mbargo?’
Stokes replied: ‘I find it a difficult question to answer.’
He also said he could not remember who he contacted following his arrest. He told jurors: ‘I was stuck in a bit of a problem as I wasn’t sure who was the best person to contact.

Stokes starred in the cricket last week (pictured) as England beat India at Edgbaston
‘Being a cricket player, I have a manager who looks after my stuff. I also had a fiancee who I was pretty sure needed to be contacted. I can’t actually remember who was contacted.’
Stokes, of Castle Eden, Durham, and Ali, of Bristol, both deny affray. The judge yesterday directed jurors to find Hale not guilty.
Today, Judge Peter Blair QC adjourned proceedings until Monday morning.
He told the jury they would be hearing closing speeches on Monday morning from the advocates before he begins to sum up the case.
The trial continues.
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