Ninth man in blood-soaked 50-person wedding brawl jailed for two years, taking total family prison term to nearly 16 years

6 December 2022, 21:46 | Updated: 7 December 2022, 10:24

Nine relatives who got into a 50-person brawl at a wedding reception that left several injured and £18,000 in damages have been jailed for nearly 16 years between them.

Michael Stokes, of Crewe, dislocated his shoulder while throwing a chair during the punch-up at the Daresbury Park Hotel in Cheshire, and was sentenced to two years in prison.

He was also seen throwing more than ten glasses during the fight - as well as another chair. He pleaded guilty to a charge of violent disorder.

That took the total jail time for those involved in the brawl to 15 years and 10 months, after eight relatives had been sentenced earlier for the June 2019 incident.

The family members threw chairs, tables and glasses at each other, and fire extinguishers as weapons.

A barman said he witnessed three men arguing at 11pm. Just 15 minutes later, around 40 men were brawling.Police were initially unable to control the situation, so the brawl continued for another 45 minutes until back-up arrived.

Fighting continued until the moment the men were detained.

The Stokes family have shelled out for the damage to the hotel, but £300 of alcohol was stolen, with glasses taken for weapons.

The hotel manager said the incident was the "worst he had ever seen in his career", with the dance floor and walls spattered in blood and glass.

Nine years of stock belonging to the hotel planner was also destroyed in the fracas.

Defending Stokes, Defydd Roberts said: "The cost of the damage has been repaid, but the defendant is aware of the sentences passed to others, who were not able to buy themselves out of a prison sentence.

"His last conviction was in 2015 and has not been in trouble since then, so this is not an entrenched pattern of offending."

Crime Commissioner Festus Akinbusoye defends the police force in response to LBC's discovery

Judge Simon Berkson said: "The events of that day were truly shocking to anyone who saw them. For those present and innocent, one can only imagine the fear.

"What should have been a happy occasion, a wedding, turned into a bloodbath.

The suite was set up for a celebration, with a DJ playing music, people dancing and enjoying themselves. This came to an end when violence broke out."

Read More: French hunters who accidentally killed British man ‘made light of his death because he was English’

Read More: Teenager guilty of murder after stabbing man to death with his own knife in drug turf feud

Detective Constable Sophie Davies said: “The disorder caused by these men in 30 minutes led to the function room, the items that were borrowed from a company as part of the wedding party and other areas of the hotel being completely destroyed at a cost of almost £15,000.

“The level of violence involved meant the officers who first attended to the hotel were unable to access the function room to bring the other guests, who were understandably shaken by what was happening, to safety due to having items thrown directly at them.

“The full extent of what happened was captured on CCTV footage from inside the hotel enabling us to see the full scale of the violence from start to finish and showed how much these men were intent on causing harm to each other as well as to others.”

The full list of convictions:

• Michael Stokes, 56, of Crewe, was jailed for two years
• Edward William Stokes, 28, of Milton Keynes, was sentenced to 27 months in prison.
• Terry Stokes, 36, of Winsford, Cheshire, was given 21 months.
• Thomas Stokes, 30, of Milton Keynes, was jailed for 25 months.
• John Christopher Stokes, 23, of Antrim, Northern Ireland, was sentenced to 16 months.
• Stephen Stokes, 25, of Fairfield, Warrington, was jailed for 20 months.
• Brian Stokes, 25, of Crewe, Cheshire, was sentenced to 18 months in jail.
• John Steven Stokes, 27, of Crewe, Cheshire, was jailed for 21 months.
• Edward Joseph Stokes, 21, of Crewe, Cheshire, was sentenced for 18 months.
• Edward Stokes, 50, of Crewe, who was on trial for a lesser charge of threatening behaviour, was sentenced to 16 weeks in prison, suspended for 18 months, and ordered to complete 100 hours of unpaid work.