LONDON (AP) — Chelsea forward Sam Kerr testified that police treated her differently because of "the color of my skin,” a court heard Wednesday during the Australia star's trial on a charge of racially aggravated harassment on a police officer.
The 31-year-old Kerr said she feared for her life when she was “trapped” during a taxi ride before the alleged harassment at Twickenham Police Station in the early hours of Jan. 30, 2023.
The Australia captain described being “terrified” and said her partner, West Ham midfielder Kristie Mewis, was “crying and scared.”
Kerr, who is one of the top women’s soccer players in the world, is charged with causing racially aggravated harassment to police constable Stephen Lovell.
It is alleged that Kerr and Mewis had been out drinking when they were driven to the police station by a taxi driver, who complained that they had 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” toward Lovell, calling him “stupid and white." Kerr accepts making the comments but denies that they amount to the charge.
The jury heard that Kerr called her treatment at the police station a “racial” thing, saying police were “treating me differently because of what they perceived to be the color of my skin — particularly PC Lovell’s behavior. ... The way he was accusing me of lying."
Giving evidence, Kerr told the jury she put her head out of the window when she began to feel sick before the driver “rolled it up” and began to “drive dangerously."
She said the dangerous driving continued for 15 to 20 minutes.
“I was terrified for my life," she said. “We were not in control... I deemed him to be dangerous because of the driving but also because he could have taken us anywhere. He couldn’t be tracked so no one knew where we were.”
Kerr said the pair tried to open the doors and windows multiple times but they remained locked before Mewis “kicked out (the window) with her boot."
Footage from Lovell’s body-worn camera was previously played to jurors, in which Kerr tells him and police constable Samuel Limb that she and Mewis were “very scared” and “trying to escape” the cab when they damaged the vehicle.
The court also heard that, at the police station, Kerr made reference to Sarah Everard, who was murdered by Met Police officer Wayne Couzens in 2023, telling officers about a “girl in Clapham” who “got raped and killed."
She allegedly said to Lovell: “I know it wasn’t you... but both of us are scared.”
Born in Perth, she also made reference to the Australian Claremont serial killer: “I lived in a state where for 30 years there was a serial killer that was thought to have been a taxi driver. Everyone was talking about not getting in a taxi.”
Kerr was asked about her upbringing in Australia and experience with racism there and in Britain.
Identifying as a white Anglo-Indian, the Chelsea forward said she had seen her father and brother — who are of Indian descent — treated differently because of the color of their skin.
She described experiencing racism at school, on social media, and while shopping, testifying that he is sometimes followed by a security guard.
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The Associated Press
