John Terry racism trial: Chelsea captain to hear verdict on Friday after court adjourns Duncan Penny for the prosecution has sought to build a case to prove this is an implausible explanation. He claimed instead that Terry lost control, having already proved his willingness to "pick on" the physical traits of opponents by indicating with gestures on the pitch that Ferdinand had bad breath and the QPR goalkeeper, Paddy Kenny, is overweight. "Are [the words] a retort, lashing out verbally," asked Penny. "Just as he did in the original exchange and with the hand-over-the-mouth to indicate [Ferdinand's alleged] bad breath, and just as he did with the words "f--- off, f---- off" and with him lashing back at the claim by Ferdinand about his relationship with a team mate's missus? This is a far more sophisticated allegation than what happened. In effect the reality of this is that it was playground abuse. George Carter-Stephenson QC, appearing in Terry's defence, argued that the prosecution's case was based on "speculation." "You've got the accounts of Mr Terry and Mr Cole," said Carter-Stephenson. "If the prosecution are right, Mr Terry in the midst of this intense game, and you've seen the way it was played in the latter stages, has had the foresight to think, "Oops I might be in trouble here," and he's gone to Mr Cole to square him up and say: "Anton thinks I've racially abused him." And then they've gone through this elaborate charade in the dressing room because Mr Cole is a good friend of Mr Terry. But then the difficulty is that he is also a good friend of Rio, Anton and the Ferdinand family. So that doesn't hang together at all, does it?