BRISTOL, Tuesday: England cricketer Ben Stokes was found not guilty of affray in a unanimous decision by a jury in less than three hours of deliberations on Tuesday following a trial at Bristol Crown Court.
The 27-year-old -- whose co-defendant Ryan Ali was also found unanimously not guilty -- had been charged following a brawl hours after England played the West Indies in a one-day international in Bristol, southwest England, in September last year.
His wife, Clare, cried when the not guilty verdicts were returned while Stokes closed his eyes with relief and then looked up. Stokes shook hands with Ali on leaving the dock at the end of the trial that lasted seven days.
At the start of the trial the prosecution tried to amend the indictment and charge Stokes with two counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm but this was rejected by the judge.
And half way through the trial Stokes’s legal team attempted to have the case against him dropped but this was also refused by the judge. AFP
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