John Terry 'used racial abuse'

The ex-England captain told Westminster Magistrates' Court he had repeated what he thought Mr Ferdinand said to him as the pair traded insults on the field.

But the prosecutor said Mr Terry had been "lashing out verbally".

Mr Terry, 31, denies a racially-aggravated public order offence over the alleged incident last October.

The pair clashed during a Premier League match at Loftus Road.

Earlier, the court heard that Mr Terry had "lost it" and was annoyed as his team struggled in the match and he reacted to taunts about his alleged affair with a team-mate's ex-partner, Kazinform has learnt from BBC News.

'Bad breath'

In his closing speech, prosecutor Duncan Penny questioned Mr Terry's claim that he was simply repeating Mr Ferdinand's words.

He said: "If it's rhetorical repetition, why does the word 'and' feature at all? Why are any other words spoken by Mr Terry at all."

"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... 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," Mr Penny said.

He added it was unlikely that Mr Ferdinand would make a false allegation of racism.

The QPR player was not the first "victim" who did not want to testify in court, he added.

Mr Penny said: "This case will follow him for the rest of his career.

"You may wish to ask yourself the question, whether in truth he was brave to give evidence in this trial?"

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