vineri, 13 iulie 2012

Westminster Magistrates’ Court’s Howard Riddle, Senior District Judge (Chief Magistrate), Judgment of 13 July 2012


Important paragraphs of the decision (in full, here):

„There is also no dispute that John Terry directed the words “(fucking) black cunt” in the direction of Anton Ferdinand. If he did that to insult or abuse him then he is guilty of the offence.

Mr Terry’s explanation is, certainly under the cold light of forensic examination, unlikely. It is not the most obvious response. It is sandwiched between other undoubted insults”.

„The prosecution point out that in the FA interview Mr Terry was asked “can you remember exactly what you said back to him?” and replied [page 65] “I think it was something along the lines of, “You black cunt, you’re a fucking knobhead”. The Crown say that this represents a true statement. It was a slip by Mr Terry. It is evidence of his guilt”.

„Weighing all the evidence together, I think it is highly unlikely that Mr Ferdinand accused Mr Terry on the pitch of calling him a black cunt”.

My estimate is that Terry said „Hey, hey, you fucking black cunt, you fucking knobhead”. „Hey, hey” is for getting Anton’s attention. I think nothing on his face or lips could suggest an interrogation mark or anything else other then insult. If this would have been my case I would have personally interrogated both „lip reading experts”, separately, on one single issue, that „heeey, heey” from the beginning of this movie. Both of them would have cracked, they warned everybody in advance: „lip reading in any given situation comprises a large measure of guesswork (?!)”.

I find extremely suspicious that the Crown insisted in finding yeah instead of hey, but being Romanian I am slighty inclined to seeing o conspiracy almost everywhere (non so rarely occurring in our country):
„The Crown say that Mr Terry responded by aiming the words “fuck off, fuck off, yeah, yeah and you fucking black cunt, fucking knobhead”, and possibly one or more other words, at Mr Ferdinand”.

And this is just another example of the pressure being put on the judge (Becali cases, anyone?):
„It may be worth mentioning here that the issue for this court to decide is not whether Mr Terry is a racist, in the broadest sense of the word. I have received a substantial volume of unchallenged evidence from witnesses, both in person and in writing, to confirm that he is not. It is not relevant to the issue I must decide”.
At least in our country the judge is prohibited to admit evidence that he knows it is not pertaining to the case at hand, not relevant.