Sam Kerr found not guilty of racially aggravated harassment of police officer
Sam Kerr has been found not guilty of racially aggravated harassment of a police officer following a seven-day trial at Kingston Crown Court.
Kerr, one of women’s football’s highest-profile players, had been accused of intentionally causing “racially aggravated harassment, alarm or distress” to PC Stephen Lovell during the incident inside a police station in the early hours of January 30, 2023.
That followed a night out Kerr had been on with her fiancee, the U.S. international Kristie Mewis, who is pregnant with their first child.
At the end of the evening, after unsuccessfully trying for three Ubers, they hailed a black cab on Oxford Street in central London and headed back to Kerr’s home in Richmond.
However, the taxi driver ended up calling the police to complain, saying they had refused to pay clean-up costs for vomit in the cab and after Mewis had smashed the rear window.
Instead of dropping them home, he instead took them to Twickenham police station, where they were met by officers.
It was once inside the police station that Kerr allegedly became abusive and referenced PC Lovell’s race.
Earlier in the trial, the court was shown bodycam footage in which Kerr was heard saying: “You guys are f******* stupid and white”, followed by “honestly, you guys are f******* stupid and white. I’m looking you in the eyes, you guys are f******* stupid. I’m f****** over this s***.”
Kerr did not deny what she said but pleaded not guilty to the charge.
Judge Peter Lodder KC said Kerr’s behaviour will have a “significant bearing” when costs are considered.
“I take the view her own behaviour contributed significantly to the bringing of this allegation,” he said. “I don’t go behind the jury’s verdict but that has a significant bearing on the question of costs.”
Kerr released a statement, in which she said: “Following today’s not guilty verdict, I can finally put this challenging period behind me.
“While I apologise for expressing myself poorly on what was a traumatic evening, I have always maintained that I did not intend to insult or harm anyone and I am thankful that the jury unanimously agreed.
“I would like to thank my partner Kristie, my family, friends and all the fans for their love and support, especially those who attended court each day.
“I am fully focused on getting back on to the pitch and look forward to an exciting year ahead for me and my family.”
Earlier in the trial, Kerr told how she felt she was treated differently by police because of her skin colour. The court heard how Kerr identifies as white Anglo-Indian and that her father, Roger, is Anglo-Indian. Kerr said she was around nine or 10 years old when she first witnessed racism directed at members of her family.
Mewis told the court she felt her partner was “speaking her truth” when she called the officer “stupid and white”, saying Kerr had “been treated differently, and spoke to differently, for her whole life”.
After Kerr “spit vomited” out the window of the taxi, Kerr and Mewis told how the atmosphere in the cab changed and the driver started driving erratically. From that moment, they felt they were being held “hostage” in the taxi and feared for their lives, which is why Mewis broke the window with her boot.
They repeatedly referenced the case of Sarah Everard, the 33-year-old woman who was abducted, raped and murdered by Metropolitan Police officer Wayne Couzens in March 2021.
When they reached the station, Kerr and Mewis said they believed officers did not want to listen to their version of events, which Mewis described as “gaslighting”. Kerr said she felt PC Lovell was using his “power and privilege” over her.
Earlier in the trial Grace Forbes, Kerr’s lawyer, suggested PC Lovell changed his statement to get a criminal charge over the line.
PC Lovell denied this. He said Kerr’s comments made him feel “shocked, upset and humiliated”.
Asked specifically about the impact of the comments regarding race, he replied, “They were too far and I took great offence to them.”
In his closing remarks on Friday, Bill Emlyn Jones KC, for the prosecution, said “calling a white man ‘white’ is not as loaded as calling a black man ‘black’.”
“It does not carry the hurt and injustice of years, decades and centuries of personal and collective experience of prejudice,” he added.
“The fact remains that in the heat of the moment, this insult was delivered in reference to race, and that is what the law prohibits.”
Emlyn Jones added how Kerr had been “very angry” and “very drunk”, which he described as a “bad combination”. He also suggested she had given it the “big I am” when she told the officers in the station, “I’ve got all the f****** people in the world” and “I’ve got f****** Chelsea going on”, something Kerr denied.
Kerr’s parents, Roger and Roxanne, as well as her brother Levi and agent Florian Schroeder, were present in court again on Tuesday, as they were for every day of the trial.
The Australia captain is one of the sport’s biggest and most recognisable stars and has won multiple trophies since joining Chelsea in 2019, scoring 99 goals in 128 matches.
She is recovering from an anterior cruciate ligament injury she sustained at a training camp in Morocco in January last year.
In June, she signed a contract extension to stay at Chelsea for a further two years.
She is expected to return from injury in around two months, with this long-running ordeal now finally behind her.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
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