Sam Kerr trial: Fiance Kristie Mewis breakdown in tears on stand – ‘I feared for my life’

Sam Kerr’s fiance Kristie Mewis has told a London court she felt she was being taken “hostage” and the police were “gaslighting” the couple.

Benedict Brook and AFP

3 min read

February 7, 2025 - 5:54AM

Sam Kerr and Kristie Mewis at court

The fiance of Sam Kerr has dramatically taken the stand in London, accusing the police of “gaslighting” the couple and claimed she felt she was being “kidnapped” and “taken hostage” by a taxi driver.

West Ham footballer Kristie Mewis, 31, broke down in tears as she was giving evidence in the trial of Kerr on Thursday, UK time.

On the same day, Chelsea and Australia striker Sam Kerr told the court she did not use “whiteness as an insult” in a heated exchange with police during which she called one officer “stupid and white”.

Kerr is on trial charged with causing racially aggravated harassment to policeman Stephen Lovell during an incident in London in the early hours of January 30, 2023.

It is alleged that Kerr, 31, and Mewis had been returning from a night out partying when they became embroiled in a fracas in a taxi.

The cab driver has claimed they had refused to pay clean-up costs after one of them vomited, and one of the two then smashed the cab’s back window.

The driver drove them to Twickenham police station in southwest London.

Sam Kerr leaves Kingston Crown Court. (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images)

Mewis takes stand

Taking the stand for the first time, a tearful Mewis said the cab fracas was “like nothing I’ve experienced”.

“I’ve never driven a car that fast before. I immediately felt fear for my life,” the UK Press Association news agency reported her as saying.

“That was obviously very scary … I didn’t know if it was a kidnapping or if we were going to crash”.

Mewis said she deemed the tax driver to be “dangerous” and there as “no reasoning with him”.

When the pair were dropped at the police station by the taxi, Mewis said Officer Lovell was “immediately dismissive”.

“We were saying we had been taken against our will, we couldn’t get out.

“He wasn’t believing what we were saying,” she said.

“In my opinion, (the police) were trying to change the story and make it into something it wasn’t.

“It felt a little bit like gaslighting … the story (they) repeated back was different or they were manipulating it back onto us.”

Kristie Mewis, the partner of Australian footballer Sam Kerr, leaves Kingston Crown Court on February 06, 2025 in Kingston upon Thames, England. (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images)

Kerr: ‘Whiteness as an insult’

At the police station, Kerr, who is mixed race, is alleged to have become “abusive and insulting” towards Officer Lovell, calling him “stupid and white”.

While on trial at Kingston Crown Court on Thursday, Kerr was asked by prosecutors if she was using Mr Lovell’s “whiteness as an insult”.

She responded: “No, that’s not what I meant”.

“I believed it was him using his power and privilege over me because he was accusing me of being something I’m not … I was trying to express that due to the power and privilege they had they would never have to understand what we had just gone through and the fear we were having for our lives,” she said.

Asked if she was saying Mr Lovell was “stupid because he was white”, Kerr said: “No”.

The court heard on Wednesday that Kerr had told police “this is a racial … thing”.

Sam Kerr (right) with fiance Kristie Mewis. Matildas captain Sam Kerr charged over alleged racially aggravated harassment of police officer in London in 2023.

When asked about these comments, Kerr said: “I believed (they) were treating me differently because of what they perceived to be the colour of my skin — particularly PC Lovell’s behaviour”.

“The way he was accusing me of lying, and later arresting me for criminal damage even though Kristie said it was just her (who smashed the taxi’s window).