LONDON — During a jury hearing on Monday, it was revealed that Chelsea footballer Sam Kerr allegedly referred to a police officer as “stupid and white.”
Kerr, who is recognized as one of the top female soccer players globally, stands trial for accusations of racially charged harassment directed towards Metropolitan Police officer Stephen Lovell in southwest London, dating back to the early hours of January 30, 2023.
As Australia’s national team captain and its leading scorer, Kerr is being accused of displaying “abusive and insulting” behavior toward Lovell.
Prosecutor Bill Emlyn Jones KC presented the case to a jury at Kingston Crown Court, indicating that Kerr and her partner, West Ham midfielder Kristie Mewis, had been out socializing and were later transported to the Twickenham Police Station by a taxi driver. The driver alleged that the pair refused to cover cleanup costs after one of them became ill, and the other caused damage to the back window of the vehicle.
During the proceedings, body camera footage from officer Lovell was shown to the jury, illustrating Kerr and Mewis’s volatile state as they asserted that they were “very scared” and attempting to escape the taxi during the incident.
The pair appeared visibly intoxicated and distressed, and Mewis was seen crying. In the footage, the 31-year-old Kerr expressed her fear, telling the officers, “This taxi driver held me and her hostage for about 15 minutes. I was like, ‘Please, let us out and I will pay whatever you want.’”
She described their desperation: “We were begging to get out of there. We were trying to escape – we were trapped. You have to understand the emergency that both of us felt. What do you expect us to do as women in that situation?”
Throughout the body camera recording, Kerr and Mewis also accused the officers of favoring the taxi driver’s narrative over their accounts.
Lovell testified that Kerr’s remark regarding his character left him feeling “upset.” He is set to face cross-examination by Kerr’s lawyer, Grace Forbes, when the trial resumes on Tuesday.
