By Rob Harris
London: The British police officer who alleges he was racially abused by soccer star Sam Kerr was determined to pursue her prosecution after she called him “f---ing stupid and white”, a court has heard, but denied embellishing his reaction to make the charges stick.
Police officer Stephen Lovell did not mention taking any offence to her words in his first statement about the incident and only included it in a further statement 11 months later, the jury was told on the second day of the trial at Kingston Crown Court.
Kerr, the captain of Australia’s women’s team and prolific goalscorer, is on trial charged with causing racially aggravated harassment to the officer during an incident in south-west London in the early hours of January 30, 2023. She accepts making the comments but does not accept that they amount to the charge.
The soccer player’s legal team argued on Tuesday that Lovell had only claimed he was “upset” by the altercation after the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), the body which has the final say on whether a criminal prosecution can go ahead, decided against charging Kerr because the evidence did not meet the required threshold.
Kerr, 31, and her partner, West Ham midfielder Kristie Mewis, had been out drinking when they were driven to Twickenham Police Station by a taxi driver who complained that they had refused to pay clean-up costs after the Australian vomited and that one of them smashed the vehicle’s rear window. The court was told she later transferred about £900 ($1796) to pay for the damage.
During cross-examination, it was put to Lovell that he embellished his reaction and only provided a statement alleging that Kerr’s comments had caused alarm or harassment after that decision.
Sam Kerr arrives at court.Credit: Getty Images
In his first statement, the officer made no mention of the “f---ing stupid and white” comment having an impact on him, the jury was told. Police submitted a request to review the CPS decision not to prosecute, and it responded that the outcome would be limited to an apology, the court heard.
Prosecutors later requested further evidence, and a second statement from Lovell was provided in December 2023, mentioning the alleged impact.
Lovell read a section of the statement to the court which said the comments made him “shocked, upset, and [left] me feeling humiliated”. The charge was authorised later, in December 2023, nearly a year after the incident.
Kerr’s barrister, Grace Forbes, told the court that the CPS had originally found no evidence of harassment or alarm caused by Kerr’s comments and suggested Lovell’s second statement described their effect “purely to get a criminal charge over the line”.
He was also asked about Kerr’s status as a well-known sports star, with Forbes suggesting: “You made an assumption about her that she was a troublemaker, that she was difficult and, because of what she does for a living, she was an arrogant person?”
Lovell said in response he did not know what Kerr did for a living and was unaware of her profile despite her exploits for the Matildas in the 2023 World Cup.
Forbes disputed his denial, saying, “You told her very early on that you knew exactly who she was”. Lovell said he did not recall saying that, but he knew she was a “famous football player” after a colleague had informed him.
During re-examination by prosecutor Bill Emlyn Jones KC, Lovell told the jury that being called “f---ing stupid” had made him feel “belittled and upset”.
Asked how it felt being called “f---ing stupid and white”, he said “it felt very unnecessary”.
Jones asked if his race had “any relevance as far as you can see to what was going on”, and Lovell said “no” and later added that the reference to him being white “upset me, I guess”.
The prosecutor asked: “Is that correct, PC Lovell, that you just made something up to get a charge over the line?” and he replied: “No, I didn’t make it up to get a charge over the line.”
Kerr’s alleged racial abuse came after she believed Lovell doubted her claim of being “held hostage” by the driver on the night. Footage from Lovell’s body-worn camera, which was previously played to jurors, showed Kerr telling officers that she and Mewis were “very scared” and “trying to escape” the cab when they damaged the vehicle.
“Just sorry, I think of course like I understand he’s doing his job and he didn’t really know where we had come from so I think it’s just I apologise for putting them in a situation where they had to stay there for so long and deal with two very angry girls that probably wasn’t gonna [sic] get solved in that moment,” she told police in an interview played to the court.
“I didn’t feel we were being heard... it was very, very threatening. I’ve never been in a situation like that where a taxi driver has locked the door and drove two females around for 15, 20 minutes without letting us go, and that’s why I felt so angry and so upset.”
The trial before Justice Peter Lodder continues.
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