John Terry Trial Update!

Were you expecting the John Terry trial to be a fine example of the UK's justice system in action? Well, it is, in that it's mostly really stupid and dumb. Here're the highlights:

• Anton Ferdinand says he was told John Terry said something racist to him after the match, but didn't actually hear it.
• John Terry says he was merely clarifying that he didn't say anything racist by using said racist term.
• There's been a long debate about how accurate obstructed lip reading can possibly be. Everyone seems pretty convinced that the answer is 'not very' unless said lip-reading supports said argument, in which case it's perfect.
• John Terry says he's not a racist.
• There have been some amusing (or depressing, depending on your mental state) tweets from all sides.

I'm pretty sure that's everything. Now the defence has filed for the case to be dismissed, which would be a very handy way of this all ending. So keep an eye out for the prosecution's response and the judge's ruling on that later today. The sooner this gets done with the better.

Update: The judge believes there's a case to answer so this all gets to continue!

If you don't think that I'm taking this trial seriously enough, it's because I think this trial is stupid, and I'm the one writing this blog. So there. Racist abuse is obviously vile and needs to be stamped out, but if the best Ferdinand has got is 'I didn't hear anything but if you lip-read him while his mouth is being obstructed by Ashley Cole he calls me bad things' we're in la-la land (NB: confirmation bias may apply in my case. And in your case, too).