IMAGE: File photo of Ben Stokes leaves Bristol Magistrates Court in Bristol. Photograph: Hannah McKay/Reuters
England cricketer Ben Stokes mocked two gay men and flicked his cigarette at them before ‘losing control’ during a brawl with two different men, a court heard heard on Monday as his trial for affray began.
The cricketer allegedly, acting in ‘revenge, retaliation or punishment’, was involved in a ‘sustained episode of significant violence’, prosecutor Nicholas Corsellis told a jury at Bristol Crown Court in southwest England.
Stokes, 27, who starred on Saturday as England beat India at Edgbaston, is being tried alongside 27-year-old Ryan Ali and Ryan Hale, 28. They each deny the charge of affray.
