John Terry has been found not guilty of
racially abusing QPR's Anton Ferdinand.
Chief Magistrate Howard Riddle delivered
his verdict after a five-day trial at
Westminster Magistrates Court in London.
He said the case was not about "whether
Mr Terry is a racist in the broadest sense of
the word", telling the court he had heard "a
great deal of evidence to show that he is
not".
"It is understandable why Mr Terry wants
to make this point - his reputation is at
stake," he said.
Terry, 31, was accused of calling Ferdinand
a "f****** black c***" during a match
between QPR and Chelsea at Loftus Road in
October. He was investigated and charged
after a complaint from an off-duty
policeman.
On Thursday, the court was told he had
used "straightforward racial abuse" against
the QPR defender rather than - as claimed
by his representative Keith Cousins on
Monday - "rhetorically responding" to what
he thought Ferdinand had accused him of
saying.
Duncan Penny, prosecuting, had responded
to that by saying it was "unlikely" that
someone's first reaction to being accused
of racist abuse would be to repeat the
same words. Terry had denied a racially
aggravated public order offence.
Penny told the court that, on Terry's
account, Ferdinand had used the words
"calling me a black c***".
Terry says he repeated back the slur
Ferdinand had accused him of - but that
meant he had added the word "f******",
Penny said: "If it's rhetorical repetition,
why are any other words spoken by Mr
Terry at all, beyond a black c***?," he
asked.
Terry and Ferdinand had traded abuse in
the build-up to the alleged racial insult, the
court was told. Ferdinand taunted Terry
about his alleged affair with team-mate
Wayne Bridge's ex-girlfriend, while Terry
implied that the QPR player had bad breath.
Penny said it was unlikely that Ferdinand
would have had the "motivation or frankly
the sophistication" in the heat of the
moment to fabricate an allegation that
Terry had used racial abuse.
He told the trial Ferdinand would not be the
first alleged victim to have been reluctant
to give evidence in court, saying: "You may
wish to ask yourself the question whether,
in truth, he was brave to give evidence in
this trial."
George Carter-Stephenson QC, for Terry,
said the prosecution case was based on
"speculation". "This is not a case about
racism," he told the court. "The prosecution,
in cross-examination, conceded that he is
not a racist.
"The way that this case is put is that on this
occasion, Mr Terry completely lost his cool
and made an inappropriate remark making
reference to a physical characteristic of Mr
Ferdinand, namely his colour, in response
to words conceded to have been repeated
taunts and insults referring to his alleged
affair with Mr Bridge's partner."
He said that, other than the Chelsea
defender's own account, there was no
direct evidence of what he had said, and
described Ferdinand as an "inconsistent
and unreliable" witness who he said had
lost his cool as he repeatedly insulted Terry
during the match.
"No matter what the words actually were, if
they were or may have been Mr Terry
repeating back what he believed Mr
Ferdinand had accused him of, then that's
the end of this particular case," he said.
Expert lip-readers were called in by both
the prosecution and defence to view
footage from the televised match as part of
the trial, but Carter-Stephenson told the
court that lip-reading, even in controlled
conditions, had an accuracy of only
60-80%.
He said Terry was "a truthful witness",
adding: "He believes that Anton Ferdinand,
on that night, accused him of calling Mr
Ferdinand a black c***."
On Wednesday, Ashley Cole, also 31 - who
played in the same defence as Terry that
afternoon - told the court: "I think we
shouldn't be sitting here." The left-back
stressed that while racism should never be
tolerated, someone repeating something
they thought had been said to them was
"completely different". He described Terry
as an "inspirational" captain.
On Tuesday, the court heard that Terry told
FA investigator Jennifer Kennedy in an
interview a week after the allegations were
made that racism was "not my character at
all" and that being called a racist was
something he was "not prepared to take".
The court heard a recording of that
interview, in which Terry said: "I have been
called a lot of things in my football career
and off the pitch, but being called a racist I
am not prepared to take. That's why I came
out and made my statement immediately. I
am not having Anton thinking that about
me, or anyone else. That's not my character
at all."
On the first day of the trial, the court heard
that Ferdinand at first did not think any
racist insult had been used. He shook hands
with Terry and accepted that their clash
was "handbags'' and "banter''.
But after the match, his then girlfriend
showed him a clip of their exchange
posted on YouTube, and he believed Terry
had used the racist obscenity. Ferdinand
told the court that, if he had realised at the
time, he would have told officials.