I am a Spurs fan, and thus with little time for JT ! I am also Deaf and have spent 60 years lipreading. I have also been involved in anti-racist activities for the past 35 years.
Based on what I have seen, I would be very concerned if JT were convicted on the 'evidence' of the film that we have access to.
For one thing I simply do not know how the prosecution can possibly think that a hearing person can be an expert witness on lipreading !!
But more importantly, lipreading is NOT just the mouth but the facial expressions, and the minutest parts of the face, the angle of the head etc etc. That gives a sense of the flow and intonation of the words, and also of the ways in which those words are meant to be taken, ie. with irony or not etc.
It is a very subtle business and very tiring, and very stressful to have to live one's life this way (because hearing people do not know British Sign Language). But it does mean that we know certain things from very deep insideâ¦
From the film we have access to, with the crucial interruption by that other player's head, my own analysis after repeated viewings back when this happened, and again now, is that...
Terry is on balance of probability saying
âYeah ? I never called you a {F..B..C..}" â
then makes a face which looks to me like ("As if !")
and then says " You F..K.." {for thinking or insinuating that he would have said such a thing.}
If you insert the phrase âI never called youâ into the part where the player walks past him, one is (some of us are) able to see both the beginning of that utterance and the end of it.
There is no way in the world that âFâ¦Bâ¦.Câ¦.â is a stand-alone utterance. That much I can tell you !
