Footballer John Terry was using "straightforward racial abuse" against Anton Ferdinand rather than sarcastically repeating a racist slur, a court has been told.
Terry, 31, is accused of calling QPR centre-half Ferdinand a "f****** black c***" during a Premier League match on 23 October last year, the Press Association reported.
Making his closing speech at Westminster Magistrates' Court, prosecutor Duncan Penny said on Terry's account, Ferdinand had used the words "calling me a black c***".
Terry claims that he simply repeated back the slur that Ferdinand wrongly thought he had used, and denies a racially aggravated public order offence.
This meant that Terry added the word "f******", and had also used the word 'and' before the racial obscenity, Mr Penny said.
Terry arriving at Westminster Magistrates Court on Thursday morning
"If it's rhetorical repetition, why does the word 'and' feature at all? Why are any other words spoken by Mr Terry at all, beyond a black c***?," Mr Penny asked.
The pair had traded insults in the run-up to the alleged racist insult.
Ferdinand taunted Terry about his alleged affair with a team mate's ex-girlfriend, while Terry implied the QPR player had bad breath.
Mr Penny said: "The words 'and' and 'f******' are Mr Terry's words and nobody else's," he said. "Are they simply a plain response, a retort, lashing out verbally just as Mr Terry did in the original exchange?
"Just as he did with the hand over the mouth to imply bad breath, just as he did with the 'f*** off, f*** off' directed towards Mr Ferdinand, and finally, when he was fed up, he picked up on the topic of Mr Ferdinand's abuse, namely the (alleged) extra-marital affair, and retorted with 'and yours', or something to that effect, and straightforward racial abuse."
John Terry, in the dock on Thursday, denies the claims
He said it was unlikely that Ferdinand would have had the "motivation or frankly the sophistication" in the heat of the moment to make up an allegation that Terry had used racial abuse.
"A false allegation of racism would be an accusation which involved more sophisticated thought processes than had hitherto been going on, on that football pitch," Mr Penny said.
He said Ferdinand would not be the first "victim" who was reluctant to give evidence in court.
"What was in this for Anton Ferdinand? This case will follow him for the rest of his career. He made it clear he did not wish to be here (in court), just like Mr (Ashley) Cole," the prosecutor said.
"Was it, in the case of Ferdinand, because he had made a grave and false allegation against the England captain?
"You may wish to ask yourself the question, whether in truth he was brave to give evidence in this trial?"
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