‘Humiliated’ police officer ‘determined to take Sam Kerr to court’

The British policeman whom footballer Sam Kerr allegedly abused has denied embellishing the impact her words had on him in order to get the Matildas captain into court.

The British policeman whom footballer Sam Kerr accused of being “f … g stupid and white” on at least three occasions has denied embellishing the impact the alleged racial words had on him in order to get the Matildas captain into court.

Police Constable Stephen Lovell, who has 11 years experience in the force, told Kingston Crown Court on day two of Kerr’s trial that he was “shocked, upset” and was left feeling “humiliated” when Kerr repeatedly insulted him when he was trying to mediate payment for damage she had caused to a London black cab after a big night out.

He said her reference to “white” went too far, adding “I took great offence to them’’.

PC Lovell denied defence counsel claims that he had said he had experienced being humiliated in order to get a criminal charge over the line after the first review of the case in July 2023 deemed that the evidence wasn’t sufficient for the matter to go to trial.

The additional charge against Kerr, of racial aggravated harassment, alarm and distress of a police officer was only confirmed by the Crown Prosecution Service on December 12, 2023 after further evidence was supplied by PC Lovell about the distress he had felt.

The police constable also denied knowing that Kerr played for Australia in the women’s world cup, saying he wasn’t a football fan.

He denied defence counsel claims he made assumptions about Kerr being “a troublemaker”, being “difficult” and “because of what she does for a living she was an arrogant person”.

PC Lovell said: “I didn’t know what she did for a living when I met Miss Kerr.”

He agreed he felt Kerr was bragging about money and that he had been determined to pursue the matter through the criminal court.

Another police officer, Samuel Limb, whose body cam was rolling although the recording wasn’t saved, told the court in agreed evidence that Kerr had also told PC Lovell that he was “a white privileged person” and also “you are literally a white privileged man”. Another officer also submitted in agreed evidence that Kerr accused PC Lovell of white privilege.

PC Limb said: “I don’t know why she mentioned skin colour as no one mentioned it.’’

Kerr, 31, denies the charge of causing racially aggravated harassment to a police officer, during an incident at Twickenham police station in south-west London, in the early hours of January 30 2023.

The court was told Sam Kerr repeatedly abused a police officer. Picture: Twitter

The case, being held this week at Kingston Crown Court before a jury of eight women and four men, heard that Kerr had returned to Kingston police station at 10.30pm the following night – an agreed time – to talk to a case officer, police constable Ryan Skinner.

Kerr arrived without legal representation and in a voice recording of the interview she is heard apologising for her drunken behaviour.

She has previously told the court she feared she was being kidnapped by the cab driver, who it turns out had been directed by the police controller to go to the nearest police station. She said she threw up, but outside of the cab, and it was at that point when the cab driver became very aggressive.

The driver had rung the police complaining that Kerr and her partner Kristie Mewis had vomited in the taxi, were refusing to pay for the damage, and were kicking the plastic screen that surrounds the driver as well as smashing the rear window.

Kerr told PC Skinner who took her statement around 18 hours after the incident: “I was obviously intoxicated and I shouldn’t have been so front-footed, but I was scared and very very threatened how I felt.’’ She added: “I am an honest person, I didn’t feel protected in that moment, like now and I am obviously here, to sort this out. In that moment I felt very very threatened, one, about how I was being treated and two, for my life in that cab.”

Kerr said she wasn’t racist because she couldn’t recall calling PC Lovell “f … g stupid and white”. But when body worn camera evidence was shown to her and she was asked if she was aware these words are perceived as racist, she replied: “I am aware anything can be perceived as racist for sure”. She said she hadn’t intended for PC Lovell to feel harassed.

“No not all, I was just very angry,’’ she said.

The court heard how Kerr ultimately paid A$1800 to the cab driver to compensate for the damage she and Mewis caused to the cab and the charges of criminal damage were dropped.

Kerr said during the 10.30pm interview that she wanted to apologise to PC Lovell.

“Just sorry (to him), 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 get solved in that moment.’’

She added: “So just like apologise for the whole, the whole event I guess because it could’ve been definitely, yeah it could’ve not happened if we just had have left it and spoke about it in the morning.’’

Kerr also claimed in the early hours in question to have rung 112, an emergency number, however PC Lovell’s checks that night with the police controller showed only one call had been made, and that was from the taxi driver.

Sam Kerr outside Kingston Crown Court in south London. Picture; AFP.

However subsequent legal checks show that the taxi driver called the police on two occasions, with only one call being logged at 2.18am, with the caller confirming the driver had also called seven minutes earlier, while Kerr’s call was logged at 2.21am when the taxi was outside the police station.

Kerr’s lawyer also confirmed that the police didn’t charge the cab driver nor make further representations about the driver’s alleged behaviour.

The trial before Justice Peter Lodder continues.