Eight jailed after hotel wedding brawl left £15,000 trail of destruction
A group of men involved in a wedding brawl that saw areas of a hotel "completely destroyed" in a £15,000, 30-minute wrecking spree have been sentenced in court.
The nine men, aged between 21 and 55, threw tables, chairs and glasses during the altercation at the Daresbury hotel in Runcorn, on 26 June 2019.
The fighting began in the bar area of the hotel's function room at around 11.15pm and continued until midnight, spilling into other areas of the hotel. Several men involved armed themselves with items including coat stands and fire extinguishers.
Police attended at about 11:35pm but officers were forced to retreat and call for backup after glasses were thrown in their direction. When officers armed with tasers arrived police entered once again and the fighting continued until the men had been detained.
After being interviewed the men were released on conditional bail while enquiries continued until they were charged and pleaded guilty to violent disorder.
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 men appeared at Chester Crown Court this week and received sentences ranging from a 16-week suspended prison sentence to a 27-month prison sentence.
On Monday 14 November, Edward William Stokes, 28, of New Bradwell, Milton Keynes, was sentenced to 27 months in prison; Terry Stokes, 36, of Winsford, Cheshire, was sentenced to 21 months in prison; Thomas Stokes, 40, of Neath Hill, Milton Keynes, was sentenced to 25 months in prison and Edward Stokes, 50, of Crewe, Cheshire, was given a 16-week prison sentence suspended for 18 months and 100 hours of unpaid work.
On Wednesday 16 November John Stokes, 23, of Antrim, Northern Ireland, was sentenced to 16 month in prison; John Steven Stokes, 27, of Crewe, Cheshire was sentenced to 21 months in prison; Stephen Stokes, 25, of Fairfield and Howley, Cheshire, was sentenced to 20 months in prison; Brian Stokes, 25, of Crewe, was sentenced to 18 months in prison and Edward Joseph Stokes, 21, of Crewe, Cheshire was sentenced to 18 months in prison.
