NINE men have been jailed for nearly 16 years after a wedding reception turned into a 50-man “bloodbath”.
Michael Stokes, 56, threw a chair at the 2019 party, which resulted in £18,000 worth of damage being done to a Cheshire hotel.
He has since been jailed along with eight other members of his family.
John Stokes, 23, John Steven Stokes, 27, Stephen Stokes, 25, Brian Stokes, 25, Edward Joseph Stokes, 21, Thomas Stokes, 30, Edward William Stokes, 28, and Terry Stokes, 36, were all jailed for the brawl.
A barman told Chester Crown Court he saw three men arguing before a fight broke out.
CCTV footage showed chairs and glasses being thrown across the function room.
Sweet carts hired for the wedding were also shown being tipped upside down.
The court heard £16,000 of the damage was caused to the hotel and £2,400 was caused to the wedding planner’s stock.
Stokes, who has a previous conviction of violent disorder, pleaded guilty to the same charge.
Judge Simon Berkson said Stokes had “clearly not learned his lesson”.
Dafydd Roberts defending said Stokes ended up needing hospital treatment after he dislocated his shoulder during the chaos.
He told the court: “His last conviction was in 2015 and has not been in trouble since then, so this is not an entrenched pattern of offending.”
Judge Berkson added: “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.”
He said the only punishment acceptable would be imprisonment.
The nine offenders were found guilty of the violence:
A tenth man, Edward Stokes, 50, faced a lesser charge of threatening behaviour and was sentenced to 16 weeks in prison, suspended for 18 months.
He was also ordered to complete 100 hours of unpaid work.
