Drunk on beer, Jägerbombs and vodka? Not me, insists Stokes
England cricket star denies he lost control in street fight but admits ‘significant memory blackout’
BEN STOKES, the England cricketer, told a court yesterday that he drank Jägerbombs, vodka and beer before a street brawl, but was not drunk and enraged when he knocked unconscious two revellers.
The 27-year-old cited “significant memory blackout” as he told a jury he was unable to recall details of conversations or throwing punches outside a Bristol nightclub last September.
Appearing at the witness box for a second day, he told Bristol Crown Court that he had not insulted a doorman beforehand, telling jurors he was looking up at the sky and talking to God.
Stokes insisted he was intervening to stop Ryan Ali, 28, and Ryan Hale, 27, from targeting William O’connor and Kai Barry with homophobic abuse.
When asked during cross-examination why he was unable to stop before knocking out Ali, a fire brigade worker, and Hale, a former soldier, Stokes said: “At the moment of time, I didn’t feel like I could.” He claimed he was forced into action after Ali lunged towards Alex Hales, his England team-mate.
Stokes also said Ali turned his brown beer bottle upside down to use as a weapon, and began swinging it around. He denied claims he “lost control”, but accepted he should have recognised the shouts of “stop” from Hales.
In addition to “two or three pints” and five or six vodka and lemonades before the fight, Stokes said for the first time that he may have drunk “Jägerbombs” – a mixture of Jägermeister spirit and a high-caffeine energy drink – inside the Mbargo club, Bristol.
Nicholas Corsellis, prosecuting, suggested to Stokes that the reason he was having problems remembering exactly what happened that night was because he was “actually really very drunk”. Stokes replied: “No.”
After being refused re-entry to the club as it was closing, Stokes and Hales began heading to a casino when they got into a fracas early on Sept 25.
Mr Corsellis asked: “You don’t remember any of the words of the homophobic abuse that you assert took place. You don’t really remember significant parts of this incident, for example knocking Mr Ali out? Is that because you were really very drunk? 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? It is not a question of your 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 responded: “I don’t remember every little detail which has gone on that night.”
The cricketer denied he was “looking threatening and aggressive” as he approached Ali and Hale, but he accepted his “injuries weren’t anything compared to what Ali sustained”. Ali suffered a fractured eye socket. Stokes told the court: “All my actions were in self defence.” Ali, also on trial, said the cricketer came at him for no reason. “He was very angry and he was looking for someone to pick on,” he told jurors.
Jake Ball, another England teammate, said in a statement that Stokes was “in a good mood”, adding: “It wasn’t a wild night out.” Ball, with Stokes, Hales, Jonny Bairstow, Liam Plunkett and James Anderson, left their hotel at 11.25pm to celebrate a win against the West Indies. Ball went back to his hotel before violence flared.
Stokes, of Castle Eden, Durham; and Ali, of Forest Road, Bristol; each deny a joint charge of affray. The trial is due to run until Tuesday.