John Terry arrives at Westminster Magistrates’ Court
The 31-year-old Chelsea and England footballer is charged with a racially-aggravated public order offence – an allegation he denies.
It relates to a comment allegedly made to the QPR defender when the teams played at Loftus Road last October.
The trial, set to last five days, is at Westminster Magistrates’ Court.
If found guilty, the maximum sentence Mr Terry could receive is a £2,500 fine.
Chelsea captain Mr Terry was allowed out of the dock into the well of the court to view footage of the alleged insult.
‘Bad breath’
The court heard that Mr Terry maintains he was only sarcastically repeating words that Mr Ferdinand wrongly thought he had used, during the match which was broadcast to millions of people.
Opening the prosecution, Duncan Penny said: “The Crown’s case is that the words were abusive and insulting in a straightforward sense.”
He added that a racially abusive obscenity had been uttered “demonstrating hostility based on Mr Ferdinand’s membership of a racial group”.
“They were uttered by the defendant in response to goading by Mr Ferdinand on the issue of his extra-marital affair, rather than by way of exaggerated and instant querying of a perceived false allegation,” he said.
Two television clips and footage that had not been broadcast of the incident, which would normally be used for training purposes, were shown to the court.
The court was told that Mr Ferdinand said something about the Chelsea player’s alleged affair and made fist gestures, before Mr Terry responded.
Chelsea team-mates John Mikel Obi and Ashley Cole were nearby when insults were traded, but they will not be called as witnesses as part of the prosecution case.
‘It’s handbags’
In a statement to the Football Association five days after the incident, Mr Terry said that he and Mr Ferdinand had been exchanging “verbals” and he had made a gesture to imply Mr Ferdinand had bad breath.
He said: “We’re still having a, sort of, ding-dong, if you like,” adding that was when the QPR player had used a racially abusive obscenity.
He added that he had taken “quite a strong offence” to Mr Ferdinand’s alleged words.
The England defender said he was not offended by the taunts about the alleged affair with Wayne Bridge’s ex-girlfriend, because “it’s not the first time I’ve heard it, so it’s with a pinch of salt a little bit now”.
But he said he was angered by any accusation that he might have used a racist insult.
After the match, which took place at QPR’s ground, Mr Terry asked a steward to get Mr Ferdinand from the QPR dressing room.
The Chelsea player said in his statement that he had asked Mr Ferdinand if he was accusing him of using racially abusive language towards him.
“But at the same time, in the context of what I thought Anton accused me of, you know, no-one can argue what my feelings were at that time.”
Immediately after the match, Mr Ferdinand did not think that Mr Terry had used racist words, the court heard.
“It’s handbags innit – it’s what happens on the pitch”, he said, and the two shook hands.
But later, Mr Ferdinand’s girlfriend showed him footage posted on YouTube, and he believed Mr Terry had used the racist insult.
In a statement made to police last November, Mr Terry said he was offended by the accusation that he had used racist language.
“Whilst footballers are used to industrial language, using racist terms is completely unacceptable whatever [the] situation,” the statement read.
“I was completely taken aback by this remark as I have never been accused of something like that and I did not take his remark lightly at all, and took strong offence to his suggestion.”
Police questioned the Chelsea player under caution in November 2011 after a complaint from a member of the public after the Premier League match.
As a summary offence under the Crime and Disorder Act, the trial will be fully dealt with in a magistrates’ court, with no jury, and is being heard by Chief Magistrate Howard Riddle.
Anton Ferdinand has played for West Ham, Sunderland and QPR and is the brother of Rio Ferdinand, John Terry’s England team-mate and defensive partner for the national side.
BBC
