Lawyer for Chelsea football captain says there is no proper evidence of alleged abuse of QPR defender Anton Ferdinand

The racial abuse case against the Chelsea captain, John Terry, is "so weak and tenuous" it should be thrown out, the footballer's defence has argued in court.

George Carter-Stephenson QC said on Tuesday there was "no proper prima facie" evidence against the 31-year-old centre back, who is accused of racially abusing the QPR defender Anton Ferdinand.

After the prosecution finished its evidence in the trial, the chief magistrate Howard Riddle was told Ferdinand's reliability as a witness was "clearly not good". The defence also argued that the lip-reading experts had agreed it was impossible to clarify from the footage what had been said at the key moment.

Terry denies a racially aggravated public order offence. He is accused of calling Ferdinand, 27, a "fucking black cunt" during a Chelsea match against QPR on 23 October last year. A complaint of racism had been made by an off-duty police officer watching the game on television, the court heard.

Westminster magistrates court was told that Terry was interviewed by Jenny Kennedy, the head of the Football Association's off-field regulation, five days after the alleged incident.

Telling her he had "nothing to hide", he said he was repeating an accusation he thought Ferdinand had made about him during an ill-tempered exchange. He admitted: "If you watch the video and me, watching the video, you can quite easily say that, that doesn't look good.

"But at the same time, in the context of what I thought Anton accused me of, you know no one can argue what my feelings were at that time."

Terry's defence is that he was repeating back to Ferdinand words he believed the QPR defender had said to him. He said Ferdinand had shouted "black cunt" at him, so Terry repeated it, then called him a "fucking knobhead".

Terry was "not prepared" to be called a racist, he told the FA in the interview, played to the court. "I have been called a lot of things in my football career and off the pitch, but being called a racist I am not prepared to take.

"That's why I came out and made my statement immediately. I am not having Anton thinking that about me, or anyone else. That's not my character at all."

He told the FA that Ferdinand was shouting abuse at him over allegedly "shagging" a team-mate's "missus" during the altercation in the 84th minute of the game, following a clash between the two in the QPR penalty area.

A player would not shout racist abuse across the pitch in front of the cameras and thousands of fans present, Terry said.

"If I had something to hide I wouldn't be projecting it in front of the Sky cameras and the people in the ground. I could easily have had my hand over my mouth or whispered it in his ear."

His representative at the FA interview, Keith Cousins, said Terry had been "rhetorically responding" to what he thought Ferdinand had accused him of.

Terry listened from the glass dock as the interview was played in court.

In it, he told Kennedy that after the game he had been anxious to clear up matters with Ferdinand and had asked him to come to the Chelsea changing room.

"I said: 'Was you accusing me of calling you a black cunt?' – my exact words – and he said 'No, not at all.'"

Terry then said "good", as he did not want Ferdinand to think he had racially abused him.

The court has heard that Ferdinand first became aware of the alleged abuse in the QPR players' lounge after the game when his girlfriend showed him footage from YouTube on her BlackBerry.

The case continues.