Ashley Blake pub attack: The full CCTV video
Aug 5 2009 by Jeanette Oldham
THIS is the moment that BBC presenter Ashley Blake brandishes the pole that he used to attack a teenager.
The shamed Midlands Today star is facing jail after being found guilty of assault and perverting the course of justice.
This CCTV footage released to the Birmingham Mail shows the former Watchdog host and Holiday reporter armed with the 3ft pole in the seconds before the attack outside his former pub, The Place II B, in Sutton Coldfield.
Blake, 40, swung the patio umbrella pole above his head before striking Greg Jones in the face, scarring him for life. Mr Jones was 17 at the time of the incident last January.
Judge Peter Carr told Blake on Monday he faced an ‘almost inevitable’ jail sentence after a jury at Birmingham Crown Court convicted him of unlawful wounding.
He was also found guilty of attempting to pervert the course of justice by throwing the pole into a garden centre in an attempt to hide it from police.
The bar and restaurant - called The Place 2B - had hosted an 18th birthday party and was closing as the attack unfolded at around 2am.
The court heard Blake had run into the bar to fetch the pole after 17-year-old Adam Finn was punched and left unconscious by customer Steven Sproule.
Mr Finn’s friends became angry following the attack, but Mr Jones, now 18, had been trying to calm the situation. The teenager told the court he asked Blake to call an ambulance, but Blake, 40, came towards him ‘swinging a bat’.
Sproule had earlier pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
He and Blake are due to return to Birmingham Crown Court on September 2 for sentencing.
Read our The Birmingham Mail's full interview with Ashley Blake here
