Terrified Kerr Testifies During Trial Amid Cop's Relentless Pursuit

Kerr officer challenged over motives | 01:50

A police officer told a London court on Wednesday (AEDT) that he was determined to pursue the prosecution of Chelsea and Australia football star Sam Kerr after she called him “stupid and white”.

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Kerr, 31, is charged with causing racially aggravated harassment to police constable Stephen Lovell during an incident in southwest London in the early hours of January 30, 2023.

It is alleged that Kerr and her partner, West Ham midfielder Kristie Mewis, had been out drinking when they were driven to a police station by a taxi driver.

The driver complained that they had refused to pay clean-up costs after one of them had vomited, and that one of them had smashed the vehicle’s rear window.

The women told officers the driver had been “acting in a crazy way” by driving fast, repeatedly stopping and speeding up again, locking them in the car, and refusing to let them go for about 15 minutes, Kingston Crown Court heard.

Footage from Lovell’s body-worn camera was previously played to jurors, in which the Matildas captain told Lovell and another police officer that she and Mewis were “very scared” and “trying to escape” the cab when they damaged the vehicle.

At the police station Kerr, who is of mixed race, is alleged to have become “abusive and insulting” towards Lovell, using an expletive and calling him “stupid and white”.

Kerr accepts making the comments but denies that they amount to the charge. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) originally decided not to charge Kerr, the court heard.

Sam Kerr arrives at Kingston Crown Court on February 3. Photo by HENRY NICHOLLS / AFP.Source: AFP

It was put to Lovell that he only provided a statement alleging that Kerr’s comments had caused alarm or harassment after that decision.

In his first statement to the CPS, the officer made no mention of the “stupid and white” comment having an impact on him, the jury was told.

Prosecutors authorised the police to charge Kerr after Lovell submitted a second statement in December 2023 — 11 months after the incident.

He read a section of that statement to the court that said the comments made him “shocked, upset, and (left) me feeling humiliated”.

Grace Forbes, defending Kerr, asked Lovell whether he had been “determined to pursue” Kerr.

Lovell said “yes” and Forbes asked “through the criminal courts”? The officer said “yes” again.

Terrified Kerr Testifies During Trial Amid Cop's Relentless Pursuit

She noted that prosecutors had originally found no evidence of harassment or alarm caused by Kerr’s comments, and suggested Lovell’s second statement described their effect “purely to get a criminal charge over the line”.

During re-examination by prosecutor Bill Emlyn Jones, Lovell told the jury that Kerr’s words had made him feel “belittled and upset”.

Forbes challenged Lovell on whether he knew Kerr was a famous athlete at the time of the incident.

Forbes said to Lovell: he said: “I am going to suggest to you that you made an assumption that she was a troublemaker, she was difficult and that because of what she does for a living, that she was an arrogant person”

Lovell said he was not a football fan and did not know who Kerr was.

Kerr gives evidence

The court also heard Kerr’s claims she was ignored by police officers after telling them the taxi driver left her fearing for her life.

Lovell first saw Kerr that evening as she crawled through a smashed taxi window outside Twickenham Police Station, the court was told.

Kerr said the driver had been “acting in a crazy way” by driving very fast, repeatedly stopping and speeding up again, locking them in the car, and refusing to let them go for about 15 minutes.

A “heated” discussion about the incident ensued between Kerr and the police, during which the 31-year-old allegedly became “abusive and insulting” towards Lovell, calling him “stupid and white”.

During questioning by prosecutor Jones, Lovell told the jury that Kerr’s words had made him feel “belittled and upset”.

Kerr, who joined Women’s Super League champions Chelsea in 2020, accepts making the comments, but denies that they amount to the charge.

In a police interview the following day, Kerr told the officer in charge that: “I was obviously intoxicated. I should not have been so front footed, but I was very threatened with how I felt,” she said in the interview played in court.

“I am a very honest person and I can honestly say I did not feel protected in that moment as a female.

“In that moment I was feeling very threatened because of one: How I was being treated, and two: For my life in that car”.

“I was in a taxi and I did vomit outside the window, and in that moment onwards the taxi driver became very aggressive and driving very dangerous, and had us both very scared.

“I actually pressed the emergency thing on my phone and spoke to someone and he (the driver) would not return us, drop us off — we wanted to pay whatever it was. He said we weren’t going to pay but that is not true at all.

“He literally was so dangerous and so scary and he had us both very afraid.”

The interview also included a telling admission from Kerr.

During the exchange with police constable Ryan Skinner, the officer conducting the interview, Kerr was asked if she would like to say anything to Lovell.

Kerr responded: “Just sorry I think, of course, I understand he was doing his job.”

Kerr said it was “very confronting” to only speak to three male officers despite just being with “a very dangerous man”, adding that she “definitely” would have preferred to speak with a woman in that situation.

During her police interview, Kerr claimed she could not recall which officer was Lovell, but said: “We spoke to three officers and honestly I didn’t feel very helped.

“We were both very scared, very upset and we didn’t feel like we, I guess, were believed, on arrival, and were kind of being – not forced – but told just behave.”

Kerr made her debut for current Women’s Super League champions Chelsea in 2020. She is currently out of action with a knee injury.

Kerr is expected to give evidence when the trial continues on Thursday morning (AEDT).