The English all-rounder Ben Stokes is going through a trial for the brawl on Bristol in which he was involved in last year. However, now the jury has been asked to consider the role of England batsman Alex Hales in the Bristol Pub Fight. Stokes had accepted that he punched Ryan Ali, who is also standing trial in affray case along with the England all-rounder, but his attorney Gordon Cole QC used his closing statement to hint at Hales role in the fight.
As reported by ESPN Cricinfo, Cole told the jury, “You will see Mr. Hales on one occasion appearing to kick. So when the prosecution seeks to hang all the blame at Ben Stokes’s door by saying he rendered people unconscious, just look at what happened. Think about kicks and stamps. There is no evidence before you and I am not suggesting for one minute that you should guess, but you can infer from what you know of the injuries that were sustained. Sustained perhaps by Alex Hales’ intervention? Blows, kicks and or stamps to the head area. Does it follow that all these injuries are properly attributed to Ben Stokes? We say no. We say that the evidence is ambiguous. We say how do you resolve that?”
Stokes has also clarified that it was an act of self-defense from his side and his counsel further backed the claim by going through the 57-second footage frame-by-frame.
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The attorney explained, “At 31 seconds, Mr. Hale is still coming towards Mr. Stokes. At 33 seconds he is coming at Mr. Stokes on the pavement. At 34 seconds you have Mr. Hale on the pavement. 41 seconds in, Mr. Hale gets hold of Ben Stokes. That [next] 16 seconds doesn’t take you to the punch of Hale; it takes you to the slap of Ali. That’s 16 seconds to reflect with reason that enough is enough when you have been the victim of an attack.”
He further added “We say there’s absolutely no coincidence that Mr. Stokes got embroiled at the start when weapons were being used and embroiled again when Mr. Hale came back with the metal bar. A person may use such force in the circumstances as is reasonable to defend himself. A person cannot weigh to a nicety the exact measure of their defensive action. Nobody need wait until they are hit. In a moment of unexpected anguish, Stokes has done only what he thought necessary.”
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Meanwhile, prosecutor Nicholas Corsellis told the jury that there are certain chances that Stokes acted in self-defense, but his act was deplorable. He also alleged the all-rounder was lying to the jury, in particular in recounting his version of events outside the Bristol nightclub.
The prosecutor elaborated, “A witness starts off with a clean slate but may not end up with one, there are occasions when a person comes before a jury and denies, explains or seeks to justify when it is clear they are lying. Of course, I’m talking about Stokes and his behavior outside Mbargo. There are aspects of Mr. Stokes’ case where he has zero recollection: the cigarette butt, the homophobic abuse; the punch on Mr. Ali. Selective memory, members of the jury. Either he can’t say, but the question is, is it ‘won’t say’ because of what the truth is?”
