Chelsea striker Samantha Kerr allegedly called a Metropolitan Police officer “stupid and white” after a row with a taxi driver, a court has heard.
The Australian football star is on trial charged with causing racially aggravated harassment to PC Stephen Lovell during the incident in southwest London in the early hours of 30 January 2023.
Prosecutor Bill Emlyn Jones KC told Kingston Crown Court 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.
The driver alleged that one of the women was sick and that one had smashed the black cab’s rear window.
At the police station, 31-year-old Kerr is alleged to have become “abusive and insulting” towards PC Lovell.
Footage from the officer’s body-worn camera showed Kerr telling PC Lovell and PC Samuel Limb that she and Ms Mewis were “very scared” and “trying to escape” the cab when they damaged the vehicle.
She can be heard saying: “I hate to break it to you, but when a male is driving a f*****g car, for us, for two women, it’s f****d, it’s f*****g scary.”
Pic: Reuters
Kerr can also be heard telling the two police officers: “This taxi driver held me and her hostage for about 15 minutes.
“I was like, ‘Please, let us out and I will pay whatever you want’.
“We were begging to get out of there. We were trying to escape – we were trapped.
“You have to understand the emergency that both of us felt. What do you expect us to do as women in that situation?”
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She also said at one point that she would “get the f*****g Chelsea lawyers on this”.
In the footage, both Kerr and Ms Mewis appear intoxicated and distressed, with Ms Mewis – who plays for West Ham United – visibly crying.
The couple also accused the officers of believing the taxi driver’s version of events over their own.
PC Lovell, who gave evidence on Monday, told the jury that Kerr’s comments that he was “stupid and white” made him feel “upset”.
He also said Kerr referred to how much money she had, which he said was “like I was trying to be belittled”.
He is to be cross-examined by Kerr’s defence lawyer when the trial resumes on Tuesday.
Kerr is one of the world’s top female strikers and Australia’s all-time top scorer with 69 goals, but has been sidelined since suffering an anterior cruciate ligament injury in January 2024.
Her trial is expected to conclude this week.
