There’s not an awful lot of humour to be taken from the John Terry trial at the minute, but the Chelsea skipper had the courtroom in stitches of laughter yesterday after a hilarious misunderstanding.
With both Terry and Ferdinand having to go into explicit detail about the insults traded on the pitch last year, Terry having to talk about abuse directed towards his mother and Paddy Kenny being called fat, the whole case has been a rather unsavoury affair, but there have been a few lighter moments over the last few days.
Terry’s self-deprecating response about once being a supreme athlete and Ashley Cole being asked if it was true that nobody ever makes noise at the Emirates raised a few chuckles, but both incidents paled into comparison with some unintentionally hilarious testimony from Terry yesterday.
Quizzed about his disciplinary record throughout his playing days, Terry was asked to repeat evidence that he had been sent off four times in his career.
“Can you say, please, four times?” asked his QC, George Carter-Stephenson.
“Please, please, please, please,” Terry responded.
The courtroom broke into hysteria in response to Terry’s comments and according to reports, he appeared confused by the reaction from the courtroom and couldn’t figure out what they found so funny.
In fairness, we have a degree of sympathy for Terry in this case because the manner in which the question was phrased seemed to be targeting the response that Terry eventually gave.
Still, when you think about it, there is rarely a scenario that would materialise in court that would require a defendant to say ‘please’ four times in succession, but at least the gallery were given something to laugh about in a trial where chuckles are few and far between.
