Chelsea striker Sam Kerr denied that the call of a “white” police officer was used as an insult when she was counter-examined Thursday in his trial for aggravated racial harassment.
Kerr, also the captain of Australia, spoke on the fourth day of the trial at Kingston Crown Court, following an incident in London on January 30, 2023.
It is alleged that Kerr and his partner, West Ham United and the midfielder of the United States national women’s team, Kristie Mewis, had drunk when they were taken to the police station by a taxi driver, who complained that he refused to pay the cleaning costs after one of them were sick and that one of them broke the vehicle’s rear window.
Kerr, who said that she feared for her life as she felt “trapped” during the taxi trip, would have become abusive and insulting towards the police constable Stephen Lovell at the police station, calling her “stupid and white”. Kerr agreed to make the comments but denies that they represent the costs.
Questioned by prosecutors if she used Lovell’s “whiteness” as an insult during the stormy exchange with him at the police station, Kerr replied: “No, that’s not what I meant.”
Kerr, who identifies himself as an Anglo-Indian white, added: “I thought it was him using his power and his privilege on me because he accuses me of being something that I am not … I was trying to express this because of the power and the privilege they had, they would never have to understand what we had just experienced and the fear that we had for our lives.
When asked if she said Lovell was “stupid because he was white,” Kerr said, “No.”
The court previously learned that Kerr had declared to the police “that it was a racial thing …”. Asked about these comments, Kerr said: “I thought that (they) treated me differently because of what they perceived as the color of my skin – especially the behavior of PC Lovell.”
She added Thursday: “(that was) the way he answered me, cut me off, the names he called me, being disdainful.”
Kerr also said that his perception had been shaped by the way the officers treated her differently with Mewis.
The trial continued on Thursday.
