Moment cricketer Ben Stokes is quizzed by police in dramatic police bodycam footage after knocking out two men in street fight

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This is the moment a handcuffed Ben Stokes is questioned by police moments after he had knocked out two men in a street fight.

The 27-year-old cricketer asked for the restraints to be loosened as he sat in the police van following the late night brawl last September.

In the police bodycam footage, which has been played to the jury at Bristol crown court and released for the first time this morning, Stokes is told why he has been arrested.

"A guy over there was covered in blood and I've been told you punched him", said the female officer, to which the cricketer replied: "Because he was abusing my two friends for being guy."

Stokes asks the officer if there are CCTV cameras in the area, and then, pointing to the handcuffs, he says: "Would you mind loosening that on my right wrist? That one on my right wrist is a bit tight."

Ben Stokes appears in police bodycam footage handcuffed after the brawl
PA

He hands over identification to the PC, and then twice more asks for the handcuffs to be loosened, explaining he has had three operations on his right wrist.

Stokes is also seen in the footage mouthing words to his England teammate Alex Hales, who is stood nearby.

Mr Hales is later heard asking "are you going to be alright Stokesy?", before leaving the scene and telling officers had "arrived late" to the incident.

A handcuffed Ben Stokes appeared in police bodycam footage
PA

The cricketer, who is absent from the squad to face India in the Second Test at Lords today, is on trial for affray alongside Ryan Ali, 28.

Ryan Hale, 27, walked free from court today after the judge directed the jury to find him not guilty of affray.

Hale had been accused of wielding a three foot metal bar during the incident, after Stokes had knocked him out.

But following the end of the prosecution case, Judge Peter Blair QC told the jury it was "acknowledged, accepted, and conceded" that it could not conclude Hale was guilty of unlawful violence.

He added that Hale had picked up the metal bar, but he then goes to the aid of his friend, Ali, instead of engaging in violence.

Ben Stokes arrives at Bristol Crown Court with his wife Clare
PA

The judge directed the jury to return a not guilty verdict on the charge of affray, and smiling Hale was allowed to leave the dock.

Stokes is accused of knocking out both Ali and Hale in the brawl, on September 25 last year, after he had been turned away from nightclub Mbargo in the Clifton Triangle area of Bristol.

This morning, jurors heard how Hale told police he had been shocked when he saw footage of the incident.

"I thought he could have killed me, I don't know why he didn't stop", he said.

"You hear about it all the time, the way he was acting in that video he could have beat the living hell out of me.

"He could have started kicking me in the face. It's shocking to see that happen to someone who didn't do anything wrong."

Hale, a former soldier, described himself as an "innocent bystander", adding: "It is shocking to think I've been put in a situation like that."

It is said Hale armed himself with part of a metal street sign during the violence, while Ali, who was left with a fractured eye socket, allegedly swung a bottle in the brawl.

Ben Stokes leaving court yesterday
Reuters

Stokes, due to give evidence later today, allegedly mocked and mimicked two gay men when he was turned away from the club that night, as well as verbally abusing the doorman in the lead up to the violence.

He claims he got involved in the fight as he walked away from the club after hearing the two gay men on the receiving end of "nasty homophobic abuse" from Hale and Ali.

The cricketer, denying all claims that he himself was homophobic, says he had shouted "leave it out, you shouldn't be taking the piss because they are gay", and became frightened when he was threatened with a bottle by Ali.

However, Hale told police he and Ali had been having "banter" with the two gay men, and Stokes must have "got the wrong end of the stick".

In court: Ben Stokes
PA

Hale said when Stokes was punching Ali, he believed he was going to "cave his face", and got involved to protect his friend.

Stokes, from Castle Eden in Durham, and Hale and Ali, both from Bristol, have all pleaded not guilty to affray.

Starting his evidence, Stokes showed the jury his "deformed" fingers on his right hand, sustained during his decade-long cricket career.

His barrister Gordon Cole QC identified "irregularities" in his little, index, and middle fingers and asked if they were sustained in the fight last September.

Stokes held up his hand in court and told the jury they were "cricket injuries", and he had undergone three operations on his hand.

"At the moment when the police handcuffed me, I was asking if they could be loosened.

"That was simply to do with the state of my right hand."

He told the court he was born in Christchurch, New Zealand, but raised in Cumbria, and was now living near Hartlepool while playing for Durham.

He told jurors the England team were in Bristol for a match, and they had been drinking after winning the game.

Ryan Hale walked free from court today after the judge directed the jury to find him not guilty of affray.

Hale had been accused of wielding a three foot metal bar during the incident, after Stokes had knocked him out.

But following the end of the prosecution case, Judge Peter Blair QC told the jury it was "acknowledged, accepted, and conceded" that it could not conclude Hale was guilty of unlawful violence.

He added that Hale had picked up the metal bar, but he then goes to the aid of his friend, Ali, instead of engaging in violence.

The judge directed the jury to return a not guilty verdict on the charge of affray, and smiling Hale was allowed to leave the dock.

The trial continues.

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