In his closing speech, prosecutor Bill Emlyn-Jones KC asked the jury: “What if PC Lovell had been a black male and what if she had called him stupid and black? Now of course that is not a fair question, because black and white is not a fair swap.”
He went on to say: “Calling a white man is not as loaded, so you can’t just turn it around, it is not as easy as that.
“In the heat of the moment this was an insult delivered in reference to race and that is what the law prohibits.
“The test for you is the same regardless of the ethnicity in question. She was insulting him and, at the time, she was hostile to him by reference to his race.
“So the fact you will be able to think of much worse examples of racial aggravation is irrelevant.
“Would we consider this a racially aggravated insult if she had said stupid and black? Of course you would, it wouldn’t even be contestable.”
