john Terry accused of 'straightforward racial abuse'

John Terry arrives at Westminster Magistrates' Court to hear the closing arguments

The Chelsea captain is facing a charge of racially aggravated assault following claims he called QPR's Anton Ferdinand a 'f****** black c***' during a match at Loftus Road last October.
During his closing statement, the prosecution's Duncan Penny questioned Mr Terry's version of events, in which he has claimed he repeated a slur he thought Mr Ferdinand had used after the pair clashed over a penalty claim.
Mr Penny suggested that Mr Terry had added the word 'f*******' to his own exchange, rather than Mr Ferdinand saying it - while adding that the use of the word 'and' before the alleged obscenity was a crucial point.
'If it's rhetorical repetition, why does the word 'and' feature at all?' Mr Penny said. 'Why are any other words spoken by Mr Terry at all, beyond a "black c***"?'
He also made reference to the claim that Mr Ferdinand had taunted Mr Terry about an alleged affair with team-mate Wayne Bridge's girlfriend Vanessa Perrconcel - as well as a gesture he made to imply Mr Ferdinand had bad breath.
'The words 'and' and 'f******' are Mr Terry's words and nobody else's,' he said. 'Are they simply a plain response, a retort, lashing out verbally just as Mr Terry did in the original exchange?

'Just as he did with the hand over the mouth to imply bad breath, just as he did with the "f*** off, f*** off" directed towards Mr Ferdinand,' Mr Penny added.
'And finally, when he was fed up, he picked up on the topic of Mr Ferdinand's abuse, namely the alleged extra-marital affair, and retorted with "and yours", or something to that effect, and straightforward racial abuse.'

Chelsea team-mate Ashley Cole was among witnesses yesterday (Picture: AFP/Getty Images)

Yesterday saw Mr Terry's team-mate Ashley Cole take the witness stand at Westminster Magistrates' Court, where he said 'we shouldn't be sitting here' - while backing up Mr Terry's version of events.
Mr Cole said while racism should not be tolerated, repeating something that someone else had allegedly said was 'completely different'.
The England left-back also admitted he held back in his original statement to the Football Association over the case due to his friendships with the two players - saying he did 'not want to get involved'.
Chelsea chairman Bruce Buck and former coach Ray Wilkins were also among the defence witnesses who took the stand during yesterday's proceedings.
Former manager Jose Mourinho also submitted a character reference, while 17 members of Chelsea's first-team squad signed a statement which said they had never heard Mr Terry use racist language.

Mr Terry has told the court he tried to speak to Mr Ferdinand's brother Rio - an England team-mate - in the aftermath of the incident but he refused to take his call.
However Mr Terry added he had been 'keen' to speak to police, saying: 'I knew there was nothing out there that would show that I had done anything wrong.
'I was keen to go forward with my police statement, my FA statement. If I had anything to hide I wouldn't have done that.'
The 31-year-old faces a fine of £2,500 if he is found guilty, but there is no prospect of a custodial sentence.