Terry comment to Ferdinand 'racist'

ohn Terry's comments towards Anton Ferdinand were racist, the mother of murdered black teenager Stephen Lawrence claims
17 July 2012

John Terry's comments towards Anton Ferdinand were racist, despite the Chelsea captain being cleared of any crime, according to the mother of murdered black teenager Stephen Lawrence.

The England defender was cleared of a racially aggravated public order offence at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Friday.

It was alleged that he maliciously called Queens Park Rangers defender Ferdinand a "f****** black c***" during a match on October 23 last year.

Asked by MPs about the race row, Doreen Lawrence said: "Regardless of the outcome of that judgment, I feel that his behaviour is something that should not be seen as anything more than a racist thing and that should have been addressed straight away and not left hanging for months.

"Young people still see him and hold him as one of their heroes and that's not right."

Ms Lawrence sat in the public gallery during Terry's trial last week. She spoke as she was giving evidence to the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee about the Independent Police Complaints Commission.

Meanwhile, the race row surrounding the Terry case continues as police begin to investigate racist comments made against footballer Ashley Cole on social networking site Twitter days after his teammate was cleared.

A user, believed to be a man from the Derbyshire area, referred to Chelsea star Cole as a "choc ice" on the site.

Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand then replied: "I hear you fella! Choc ice is classic hahahahahaha!!"

Derbyshire Police said they are investigating the original Tweet after receiving complaints from members of the public. The "choc ice" term is understood to mean "black on the outside, white on the inside".

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in