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The Chelsea and Australia star Sam Kerr called a Metropolitan police officer “stupid and white” during an incident at a police station, a jury has been told.
The Matildas captain, 31, is on trial charged with causing racially aggravated harassment to the officer during an incident in south-west London, in the early hours of January 30 2023.
It is alleged that Kerr and her partner, fellow footballer Kristie Mewis, had been out drinking when they were driven to Twickenham police station by a taxi driver who complained the passengers refused to pay clean-up costs after one of them was sick, and that one of them smashed the vehicle’s rear window.
At the police station, Kerr is alleged to have become “abusive and insulting” towards PC Stephen Lovell.
Footage from Lovell’s body worn camera was played to a jury sitting at Kingston crown court on Monday, in which Kerr tells Lovell: “Honestly, you guys are fucking stupid and white.”
Bill Emlyn Jones KC, for the prosecution, told the jury: “The defendant’s comments towards PC Lovell left him shocked, upset, and humiliated.
“He took offence to the comments that Ms Kerr made about his race because you may think that his being a white man really had nothing to do with anything.”
The prosecutor added: “Ms Kerr denied that she intended to cause PC Lovell harassment, alarm or distress.
“She said: ‘I was just very angry at how I felt.’
“She described the entire situation as distressing and ‘a heated moment’.
“Ms Kerr said that both herself and Ms Mewis were crying at the time.”
Kerr, of Richmond, pleaded not guilty the offence at Kingston crown Court in March last year.
Grace Forbes, defending, told jurors on Monday: “Nobody disputes the words that were said. But simple words, even words like these, do not make you guilty of a criminal offence.”
She added: “The words were a comment, however poorly expressed, about positions of power, about privilege, and how those things might colour perception.”
According to the prosecution, Kerr and Mewis had been drinking on the night of 29 January 2023, when they decided to take a taxi home in the early hours of 30 January.
The taxi driver later called the police to complain that a woman inside his taxi was trying to smash the rear window.
The operator advised the taxi driver to pull up outside Twickenham police station and to seek the assistance of police officers there, the court heard.
Lovell and a fellow constable were in a marked police vehicle driving towards the station, and arrived at the same time as the taxi at about 2.20am.
Emlyn Jones said: “They noticed smashed glass in the road and saw that a taxi was parked outside the police station.
“The driver of the taxi sounded his horn to alert the officers, and then pulled his taxi to a stop behind their vehicle.
“The officers saw Ms Kerr crawling out of the broken rear window of the taxi.”
The court heard that Kerr and her partner approached the police car, and were both in a “distressed state”.
The prosecution continued: “Inside the police station Ms Kerr explained that the taxi driver had collected them but then refused to take them to Ms Kerr’s address.
“They felt that the taxi driver was kidnapping them, and so they broke the rear window in order to escape and raise the alarm.
“PC Lovell went back outside to inspect the damage to the taxi.
“He saw that not only was the rear window smashed, but that the piece of plastic that separates the driver in the front from the passengers in the rear had also been damaged.
“The taxi driver explained to PC Limb that one of his passengers had been sick in the rear.
“He had asked them to pay for the cost of cleaning it up, and they refused. It was at that point that he had called the police.”
Jurors were told Lovell then went back into the police station to speak to Kerr and Mewis about the taxi driver’s account of the incident.
Emlyn Jones said: “PC Lovell tried a number of times to explain to Ms Kerr and Ms Mewis what the taxi driver had said, but they would not let him speak and kept interrupting him every time he tried to speak.
“The defendant used her mobile telephone to show Lovell the contents of her bank account as if to say, ‘Look, I could easily afford to pay for any damage to the taxi’ if she wanted to’.”
Emlyn Jones added: “PC Lovell felt that Ms Kerr was showing off her wealth, and he felt somewhat belittled.”
Kerr can be heard on body camera footage claiming she had herself tried to call the police when she was in the taxi, but that they had hung up on her.
When Pc Lovell replied “They wouldn’t do that”, Kerr said: “Oh my God... Honestly, you guys are fucking stupid and white” and then “You guys are fucking stupid and white”.
Kerr then looked up at Pc Lovell and said: “I’m looking you in the eyes, I’m looking you in the eyes, you guys are fucking stupid, I’m fucking over this shit...”
The trial continues.
