By Rob Harris
London: At face value, it seemed relatively cut and dry. No matter how many viewed it as trivial, Sam Kerr had been captured on camera saying what she said, and she couldn’t dispute it.
Even Kerr’s defence barrister admitted she did not cover herself in glory on the night in question when, in several expletive-laden abusive rants, she called a British police officer “f---ing stupid and white”.
The judge said her behaviour contributed significantly to the allegation. A jury, however, found her not guilty. Kerr now just wants to move on and get back to doing what she does best.
Australian footballer Sam Kerr arrives at Kingston Upon Thames Crown Court.Credit: Getty Images
Thirty minutes of footage played to Kingston Crown Court last week shocked those in the room and many in the sporting world. The Australian captain, one of soccer’s biggest and most recognisable stars, was drunk in a police interview room well past 3am.
It was not the best time and place to offer a social commentary.
At various points in the exchange, Kerr called people c---s, showed Constable Stephen Lovell her bank account, and made reference to the “best f----ing lawyers”.
Sam Kerr is captured on police bodycam on the night in question.
Grace Forbes, Kerr’s barrister, told the court that nobody disputed the words that were said but added, “That does not make you guilty of a criminal offence. The law is a little more nuanced and a little more human than that.”
It would prove so. As the trial progressed through six days, more details emerged, and the picture became more complex. A chaotic taxi ride. A smashed window. A spew. A dodged fare. An angry driver. An allegation of kidnap. The fear of murder and rape. “Gaslighting” from police.
On social media and in cafes, many thought it a storm in a teacup. But in the court, with two of Britain’s top-flight barristers, it was deadly serious. What had appeared rather straightforward had soon morphed into a wider debate over power, privilege, race, and women’s safety.
It took just over four hours for a 12-member jury – eight women and four men – to clear Kerr, who identifies as white Anglo-Indian, of the charge. In a time when identity politics and culture wars have infected so much of the public dialogue, it’s not easy to get 12 random folk to agree on anything.
Kerr had earlier told the court it was difficult to watch that footage. Her main defence was that she did not use the word “white” as an insult but was instead demonstrating what she perceived to be Lovell’s own privilege. He would not listen to her story.
Lovell called Kerr “little missy” and said: “Do you think a taxi driver that was going to rape and kill you would drive you to a police station? No.” After this, she called him “sick” and a “white privileged man”.
The jury, in the end, believed Kerr’s extreme distress at being locked in the back of a black cab while being driven to her home in Richmond, south-west London, in the early hours of January 30, 2023, and that her frustration with Lovell, who was trying to negotiate for Kerr to pay for the damage to the cab, was not racially aggravated.
Or maybe they didn’t believe Lovell had been genuinely hurt by her language. When he was on the witness stand, Kerr’s barrister told the court, “four valiant attempts” were made to emphasise how much he was impacted. She said “the height of his feeling” was “that upset me, I guess”.
Kerr’s partner Kristie Mewis leaves court. Credit: Getty Images
Kerr that night, on the other hand, had told police that she and her partner had feared a repeat of what happened to Sarah Everard, who was kidnapped, raped and killed by police officer Wayne Couzens in 2021. The murder shocked Britain in a similar vein to that of Jill Meagher 13 years ago in Melbourne.
On the stand, Kerr’s voice was quiet and shy. On several occasions, she was asked to speak up. “I’m really trying,” Kerr said at one point. She said she’d grown up in a state where there was a serial killer who was thought to have been a taxi driver. The “Claremont Killer” turned out not to be a cabbie, but that case was not solved until 2020.
Somewhat characteristically, Kerr was stoic as the not-guilty verdict was read out. She’d told the court last week she was the more masculine of the two in her relationship. The protector.
Kristie Mewis, who sat alongside her fiancee’s father, Roger, and her agent, Florian Schroeder, immediately broke down and sobbed. Six months pregnant with their first child, Mewis had played an active role in the events in question and during the trial as a witness. The toll it took on her was obvious.
Kerr’s father, Roger, arrives at court.Credit: Getty Images
This group, including Kerr’s mum, Roxanne, and brother Levi, were a constant throughout the trial, arriving each day with Kerr in a hired black van and leaving alongside her, navigating hordes of cameras.
Die-hard Chelsea fans, some wearing scarves, let out sighs of relief. Some had sought autographs and selfies during the trial. Their hero obliged.
Kerr offered Forbes a thumbs up: “You have done amazing; I can’t thank you enough.” Then, jokingly, she told the dock officer, “Hope to never see you again”, as she left the courtroom. She then embraced her brother in a way only siblings can. The relief was real.
The case is likely to spark a wider debate about free speech and race in Britain – a fraught topic – particularly around how people of colour can express their opinions and grievances. The police had alleged a crime was committed motivated by hostility towards a white person.
Kerr had told the jury how she’d been treated differently as a schoolgirl in Perth because of her skin colour and seen her father and brother subjected to worse. She’d even been followed suspiciously by security in shopping centres.
‘It does not carry the hurt’
In his closing remarks last week, Bill Emlyn Jones, KC, for the prosecution, said it was clear “calling a white man ‘white’ was 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. “[But] 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.”
Judge Peter Lodder wasn’t all that convinced by Kerr’s version of events either. He questioned her evidence several times, asking the jury to ponder why she had the nous to record her interactions with police but never bothered to record the taxi driver during her 20-minute ride from hell.
Kerr has never been a media friend and did not speak as she left court. Her personally hired reputation management consultant, instead, sent out a statement on her behalf.
“Following today’s not guilty verdict, I can finally put this challenging period behind me,” she said.
“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.”
Having been sidelined for a year through a serious injury, Kerr can’t wait to let her soccer now do all the talking.
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