R v Terry

R v John Terry was a 2012 English criminal law case in which the Chelsea and England center back John Terry was found not guilty of racially abusing the Queens Park Rangers defender Anton Ferdinand in a football match between Chelsea and Queens Park Rangers on 23 October 2011.[1] The prosecution, acquittal and civil inquiry and penalty by the Football Association received broad media coverage. The taint of bringing race into an retortive insult short of full, criminal law-defined racial abuse had repercussions in football. Terry lost the captaincy of the England national team which he retired from and England coach Fabio Capello quit as manager when the Football Association made its reprimand.

R v John Terry
John Terry (pictured) was found not guilty by the Magistrates
CourtWestminster Magistrates' Court
Full case nameRegina v John Terry
Decided13 July 2012
Citation(s)BBC reproduced court transcript of Westminster Magistrates Court: 13 07 12
Transcript(s)
Case history
Prior action(s)None
Subsequent action(s)None
Court membership
Judge(s) sittingHoward Riddle (Chief Magistrate)
Keywords
  • Racism
  • criminal threshold of racial abuse requiring intent to insult and not repeating back an accusation put
  • team sportsmen
  • unlikely but on facts not beyond all reasonable doubt defence of belief recipient made an accusation in alike terms
  • context of regular taunts and provocative gesture between people involved during game

Trial

Both sides adduced similar expert witnesses and evidence in lip-reading and largely accepted the video evidence making for a similar account. No third-party direct audio witnesses are known to be on the noisy pitch during the closing minutes of the match. John Terry was represented by George Carter-Stephenson QC.

Judgment

Chief Magistrate Howard Riddle concluded that while there was no doubt Terry said "fuck off, fuck off [few unclear words] fucking black cunt, fucking knobhead”, and possibly one or more other words to Anton Ferdinand. He concluded "I think it is highly unlikely that Mr Ferdinand accused Mr Terry on the pitch of calling him a black cunt. However I accept that it is possible that Mr Terry believed at the time, and believes now, that such an accusation was made."[1]

Aftermath

Found not guilty as to the criminal law, the Football Association decided to hold an inquiry independent of the criminal hearing. This led to John Terry retiring from international football. The inquiry found Terry guilty of racial abuse at the civil standard[lower-alpha 1] and saw him handed a four-match domestic ban.[2][3]

See also

Footnote and references
Notes
  1. On the balance of probabilities, not beyond reasonable doubt
Citations
  1. "REGINA V JOHN TERRY: JUDGMENT" (PDF). Judiciary of England and Wales. Retrieved 23 September 2012.
  2. "RULING OF THE FULL REGULATORY COMMISSION FOLLOWING THE SUBSTANTIVE DISCIPLINARY HEARING HELD BETWEEN 24TH AND 27TH SEPTEMBER 2012". The Football Association. Retrieved 18 November 2012.
  3. "John Terry banned and fined by FA over Anton Ferdinand incident". BBC Sport. 27 September 2012.
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