Ben Stokes has denied that CCTV footage of him brawling in a Bristol street showed “an angry man” who had “lost all control”.



The England cricketer agreed he had “significant memory block” over a fight outside a nightclub in the city, but denied a suggestion that he was “really very drunk” and his eyes were glazed and his speech was slurred.

Stokes is accused of affray near Mbargo nightclub in the Clifton Triangle area of Bristol during the early hours of 25 September last year.

Bristol crown court has heard that Stokes, 27, was the “main aggressor” in a fight that broke out between him and two other men – Ryan Ali, 28, a firefighter, and Ryan Hale, 27, a former serviceman – who were allegedly knocked unconscious.

Cross-examining, the prosecutor, Nicholas Corsellis, asked Stokes if he agreed that he seemed to have “really significant memory blackout” and could not remember hitting Ali during the incident, which occurred after Stokes and his teammates, including Alex Hales, were celebrating England’s victory over the West Indies in a one-day international match.

Stokes replied: “You could say that. Yes.”

Corsellis asked: “Is that because you were actually really very drunk?”

Stokes replied: “No.” He said there were lots of people around and there was a lot of shouting going on, so he did not remember everything.

Did he agree, Corsellis asked, that in police bodycam footage of his arrest, his “eyes seem to be glazed” and his words “seem to be a little slurred”. Stokes replied: “No.”

Reviewing CCTV footage of the fight, Corsellis asked Stokes: “Isn’t what you see on this footage an angry man who has lost all control?” Stokes replied: “Absolutely no.”

The Durham cricketer previously told the jury he had consumed a beer at the ground after the match, two or three pints at his hotel with dinner, five or six vodka and lemonades in Mbargo, and “more than one” vodka and lemonades at another nightclub. Totting them up, it seemed to be “at least 10”, Corsellis said. He asked if there were more. Stokes replied: “Maybe a few Jägerbombs.”

Stokes, of Castle Eden in County Durham, and Ali, of Bristol, each deny a joint charge of affray. Hale, of Westbury-on-Trym, Bristol, was found not guilty of the same charge on the direction of the judge, Peter Blair QC, after legal submissions at the end of the prosecution case on Thursday.

Stokes has denied claims by the nightclub’s doorman, who had refused the cricketer and Hales re-entry, that he had mocked two gay men, Kai Barry and William O’Connor, outside the club, mimicking the couple’s “flamboyant” gestures and flicking a cigarette butt at them.

He told the jury he stepped in after hearing Ali and Hale making homophobic remarks towards the couple, though he could not recall the exact words used.

Stokes claimed that Ali, who he said was holding a beer bottle, had replied: “Shut the fuck up or I’ll bottle you.” Stokes told the jury: “All my actions were in self-defence and fearing for my safety.”

He denied offering the club doorman £300 for re-entry into Mbargo, claiming he offered £60. “I wouldn’t offer £300 to get back into even the best club in London,” he replied.

Stokes also denied saying the doorman’s tattoos were “shit”, claiming he had in fact said: “Come on mate, I’ve got shit tattoos as well, let us in.”

Corsellis challenged him. “But you don’t have shit tattoos. You have spent a lot of money and time and care on your tattoos, and they are not shit,” the prosecutor said.

Stokes replied that he liked the tattoos on his arms, but he did not like the tattoo on his back. “It’s not done very well and it’s a bit faded,” he said. He was constantly getting comments about his tattoos, he added, “especially on the boundary line”.

Corsellis asked him if the person he presented outside Mbargo “was different to the normal person you are, the person you present today. You were aggressive, demeaning and looking for a fight?” Stokes replied: “No.”

The prosecutor continued: “When you came upon a fight, you acted in retaliation, in revenge and fought with both Mr Hale and Mr Ali, who had nothing in their hand and were backing away from you, and you punched them both unconscious without good reason.” Stokes said no.

He said he had acted in self-defence from the start and if Ali had been able to continue what he was doing, he could have caused “serious injury” to him, Hales and others.

Asked if he had been enraged, Stokes replied: “No, at this time my sole focus was to protect myself.”

Viewing further footage showing Stokes looking upward, Corsellis asked the cricketer what he was looking at. “I might just be looking at the night sky,” replied Stokes.

Who was he speaking to when looking at the night sky, Corsellis asked. “God?” Stokes replied.

In a witness statement, teammate Jake Ball, who had been with Stokes at the club earlier, said he had seemed “calm, relaxed and in control and certainly not drunk or looking for trouble”.

Ryan Hale (left) and Ryan Ali leave the court in Bristol. Photograph: Ben Stansall/AFP/Getty Images

Ali, who suffered a fractured left eye socket in the fight, said while giving evidence that he still suffered double vision and floaters in his eye, and his recollection of the incident was incomplete due to the head injury.

He said he had drunk about seven Jack Daniels and Cokes during the night out with Hale, his best friend. The two got chatting to the gay couple inside the club, and he remembered the four of them walking in the street after leaving Mbargo.

“I recall we were in a group of four, having a laugh and having some banter. And the next thing I know, what I thought was a tall, blond guy in the road charging towards me.

“The next thing I recall is walking in the road, with my palms up, walking backwards saying, ‘I don’t want any trouble.’” He said Hale was on the floor unconscious, and he tried to calm Stokes down. He had no memory of being hit and knocked to the floor, just waking up in the road.

He told the court he would never have used homophobic language, and did not know why Stokes had charged towards him. “I have my own idea from the CCTV. That he was very angry and looking for someone to pick on,” he said.

He had no recollection of threatening anyone with a bottle, but accepted CCTV footage appeared to show him striking out at Barry with a bottle, and Barry then trying to stop him attacking Hales. He could not recall why, though believed he would have “perceived a significant threat”.

Asked by Gordon Cole QC, for Stokes, if he accepted that it was only when he struck Barry with the bottle that Stokes got involved, Ali replied: “I don’t believe that’s true, no.”

Corsellis put it to Ali that the use of the bottle against Barry was “wholly uncalled for” and had “led to Ben Stokes’s reaction to you”. Ali replied: “I don’t believe so.”

Corsellis continued: “On that particular night you were heavy in drink and took out a bottle and used it against Kai Barry in unlawful circumstances.”

Ali replied: “I don’t believe that’s the case. No.”

The trial continues.