May take a new twist.. John Terry's legal team might make a bad character application against Anton Ferdinand during his racism trial, a court has heard. The ex-England captain, 31, will stand trial at Westminster Magistrates' Court on 9 July accused of a racially-aggravated public order offence. Mr Terry's barrister, George Carter-Stephenson QC, has now said he is considering making the application. Bad character applications are used to cast doubt on a witness' evidence. The trial relates to a comment allegedly made and caught on camera to the Queens Park Rangers defender when the two teams played last October. According to the Crown Prosecution Service, "bad character" in criminal proceedings means "evidence of or a disposition towards misconduct". Mr Carter-Stephenson said: "There is likely to be an application for bad character against Mr Ferdinand about two incidents." No details were given about what these incidents were.
I read this and was confused - and yes I know that doesn't take much.............. I thought the trial came about because someone in the crowd made the complaint against Terry and not Ferdinand, so how does making Anton out to be a bad character help?
It will cast doubt on his testimony or the judge will have to rule his evidence is inadmissible I would imagine. Can see him getting off on a technicality/loophole
Don't be too surprised if he gets off with it or the charges get mysteriously dropped with a donation to Antons fav charity.
The whole trial is stupid IMO. I don't think people should be taken to court for calling someone a black bastard or w/e The FA should give him a ban and that should be that. Using the word Black as an adjective in a negative way is not racism. It's offensive, but not really racism, and it's silly that an insult towards someone else can go to court. That means If I call someone a fat bastard, then they can take me to court for being prejudiced against Fat people. I think calling someone a black bastard is wrong, but it's not racism and the fact that it can start a court case is silly, especially since if a Black guy called a White guy a "white bastard", nothing would happen as no one would give two ****s, as it only seems to matter when it happens to black people as they were slaves once, and that means we have to be super nice to them now, like the current generation of black people should get reparations because their grandad's suffered I don't like it when I hear people getting called N***ers and Black bastards, but it shouldn't be taken to court.
Terry will get off Scott free no doubt. The man is bent as hell IMHO. All that chest puffing crap merely hides a sneaky, slimy scumbag.
Dad rekons he will be made an example of.... he is a solicitor himself and seems to think they arnt dropping the case and are instead gunning for him, and if convicted there could even be a short prison sentence...
Not so. The maximum he can get is a £2500 fine. The lawyers are aware of this & indeed have publicly spoken about it.
Cannot believe the CPS are going to these lengths to prove a point or make an example of Terry. No other black player has spoken about Terry's attitude to black people. A couple of defence character witnesses such as Malouda or Drogba to speak on his behalf would finish this on day one. Must be something in Ferdinand's past they are dragging up. God help footbal that it has reached this level, especially on the back of Suarez/Evra pantomime.
