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BBC reporter jailed for two years for assault on teenager

By Oliver Luft

BBC presenter Ashley Blake was jailed for two years today after being convicted of hitting a teenage boy in the face with a large wooden pole.

Midlands Today reporter Blake was convicted of unlawful wounding last month at Birmingham Crown Court and then sacked by the BBC.

During his trail the jury heard Blake swung a patio umbrella pole above his head, striking 17-year-old Greg Jones in the face. The teenager suffered injuries to his lip and his chin.

The incident happened at an 18th birthday party in January in Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands, at the pub Blake then owned, The Place 2B.

The 40-year-old was also found guilty of perverting the course of justice by throwing the pole into a neighbouring garden centre in an attempt to conceal it from police.

Following his conviction judge Peter Carr warned Blake, who also worked on the Inside Out current affairs show, that a jail sentence was “almost inevitable”.

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