Police ‘treated me differently because of skin colour’, says Sam Kerr

Matildas captain Sam Kerr has told a court she called a British police officer ‘f..king stupid and white’ because she felt he didn’t believe her account of her drunken behaviour in a London taxi.

Sam Kerr at Kingston Crown Court for day three of her trial. Picture: Jacquelin Magnay

Matildas captain Sam Kerr has claimed she called a British police officer “f..king stupid and white” because she was being treated differently because of her skin colour.

Kerr also told Kingston Crown Court in London that she was the “masculine one” in her relationship with partner Kristie Mewis and that she had switched into protective mode when Mewis became distressed during an altercation with a taxi driver. She added that she had been reminded of the 1996–97 Claremont serial killings in Western Australia.

But she denied “kicking off” in the back of the cab in the early hours of January 30, 2023, before a further incident at Twickenham police station in southwest London.

In the witness box on day three of her trial for racially aggravated harassment, Kerr, 31, told the jury that while she expressed herself poorly at the police station, she was trying to make a point by using the words “stupid” and “white”.

“I felt like they were treating me differently and not believing me and treating me as a person who had done something wrong because they were in the position of privilege and power and I believe they were treating me differently because of the colour of my skin,” she said.

Kerr told the court she identified as white Anglo-Indian, and added that she felt Constable Stephen Lovell “had no idea about the power and privilege he had in that moment or in life, by the way he commented on what the taxi driver could have done to me”.

This was after Constable Lovell dismissed her concerns about what happened to Sarah Everard, who was raped and killed by a police officer while walking home in London.

“It shows he has never experienced that or ever had to think about what could happen to you as a female,” she said.

Kerr has denied the charge of racial aggravated harassment, alarm and distress of a police officer. The court has seen body-cam footage of a drunk Kerr repeatedly calling Constable Lovell “f..king stupid and white”. In other evidence presented to court she spoke of his “white privilege”.

During the start of cross-examination on Wednesday afternoon (local time), Kerr insisted she still maintained she was being kidnapped even though the cab driver had taken her to a place of safety – Twickenham police station.

The driver had called police at 2.11am, and again at 2.18am. Kerr had called the emergency services at 2.22am when near the police station.

Kerr had got out of the cab through a broken window, and she opened the door for Mewis to exit normally.

Kerr told the court she believed the cab driver might pick up other passengers even though she admitted she had vomited on his cab.

She said “there was nothing to know about him’’ when asked about the cab driver and could only remember begging him to let them out.

She told the jury she could not remember that he had a strong Indian accent.

Kerr said the video of herself on the night of January 30 was “really hard to watch” and she was “quite embarrassed”. She told the jury of four men and eight women: “It was a hard one to watch, not only because of the way I was acting, but also watching myself in that much distress.”

Kerr, who plays for Chelsea in the Women’s Super League competition, said she had finally agreed to settle a bill of £900 ($1700) to cover the cost of the fare, cleaning and damage to the driver’s protective screen and the smashed rear window of the taxi. This resulted in charges of criminal damage being dropped.

She did so because Mewis – an American who plays for West Ham – reminded her that any police issue could impact her chances of being selected for United States World Cup team.

Earlier Kerr told the court she had refused to pay for the damage because it was Mewis who had kicked out the rear window. She could not explain the damage to the protective screen.

“I am a big believer it was an injustice, we don’t try to escape from someone and then get charged for it,’’ she said.

Kerr gave evidence that the two women were standing in the black cab, not wearing seat belts, and accused the driver of throwing them around by driving erratically immediately after she had been sick.

Kerr told the jury she had always taken Ubers because the vehicles could be tracked – a practice born of growing up in Western Australia.

“I lived in a state (of Australia) where for 30 years there was a serial killer roaming, it was thought to have been a taxi driver and that everyone was talking about not getting into taxis,’’ she said.

She told the jury the Claremont killings were “happening close to Fremantle where we were (living)’’.

Kerr said she had shared a bottle of wine with Mewis at Amazonico London, a Latin American restaurant in exclusive Berkeley Square on the night of January 29, 2023, before catching up with friends who were celebrating a birthday at the Bagatelle restaurant nearby. She said she had two cocktails there.

The group then moved to a nightclub in “a dungeon” but Kerr said she and Mewis stayed only 15 minutes because the scene “wasn’t for us’’.

“I am not normally a nightclub night person, I usually do things in a day being from Australia, being Australian I like to be out in the sun rather than a closed dungeon,” she said.

Kerr told the court she first became aware of racial discrimination when she was about nine or 10 years old.

“At the start I was quite confused but then it was not too bad. Confusion turned into understanding about why and it turned into more disappointment and sadness,’’ she said.

Kerr said the issue of race “is always a touchy subject”. She claimed that at school her teachers had singled her out, claiming she was the troublemaker.

“I definitely was not (a troublemaker),’’ she said, adding that she was often targeted on social media and also “when in a shopping centre if not dressed correctly I am often followed around by a security guard”.

The trial continues.