Sam Kerr trial: footballer was ‘terrified’ for her life during taxi ride, court told

Sam Kerr said she was treated differently by police “because of the colour of my skin” after they doubted her account of being locked in a taxi that was speeding and swerving which she said left her “terrified” for her life, a court has heard.

Kerr, 31, the captain of the Australian women’s football team and Chelsea’s star striker, is on trial at Kingston crown court accused of racially aggravated harassment after calling a police officer “fucking stupid and white” when he doubted her claim of being “held hostage” by the driver. She denies the charges.

Giving evidence on Wednesday, Kerr was asked by her defence counsel, Grace Forbes, about the incident with PC Stephen Lovell at Twickenham police station in the early hours of 30 January 2023, and the hours beforehand, including the taxi ride.

Kerr told the court she felt “powerless” in the police station after her account of being “terrified for [her] life” in a locked, speeding taxi was doubted by officers who she said treated her differently “based on what they perceived to be the colour of my skin”.

Forbes asked the Matilda’s star about her experience of racism growing up in Australia. Kerr, who identifies as White-Anglo-Indian, said: “At school, I experienced being in situations where teacher had instigated that i was the troublemaker, or had started trouble,” she told the court.

Kerr said she continued to face racism over social media and was “often followed around by security or a member of staff” while shopping if she was not “dressed correctly”.

Kerr said she moved to the UK in December 2019 after signing with Chelsea. She said she met her partner, Kristie Mewis, six months later after the West Ham United player “slid into my DMs”. She said the pair are due to get married in December and are expecting a baby boy in May.

On the evening of 29 January, they had been on a dinner date before visiting another restaurant for a friend’s birthday. Kerr said she had had some wine and cocktails that evening and ended up in a nightclub that was “a bit of a dungeon”. They stayed for 15 minutes before leaving to head home because the club “wasn’t for us”.

Kerr said she had tried to request three Uber taxis but they couldn’t find a ride. Instead, they hailed a black cab, which she told the court she never used over fears related to the Claremont killer, who murdered young women in an area of Perth close to where Kerr grew up.

“I lived in a state where, for 30 years, there was actually a serial killer roaming that was thought to be a taxi driver, everyone was talking about not getting in taxis,” she said.

She said, at first, the taxi driver drove normally. Roughly 15 minutes into the journey however, Kerr began to feel sick. She put the window down and laid her head “on the outside of the window”.

“I started to feel a little bit sick and I was spit vomiting outside of the gap,” she said. While her head was still sitting on the car’s open window frame, Kerr said the driver rolled it back up. She said from this point onwards, the atmosphere in the cab became “very scary”.

She said he “instantly starting screaming after putting the window up” and it “became very dangerous and very erratic”. Kerr said the car was going “dramatically faster than before” and that it was “swerving in and out of lanes”.

Kerr said neither she nor Mewis had seatbelts on and they were “getting thrown around” the cab.

“I hate speed at the best of times so I was terrified for my life. I didn’t have a seatbelt on so I was getting thrown around the back of the cab,” she said. “Everything was going through my mind being in a car with a stranger.”

Kerr told the court that Mewis had pleaded with the driver to stop the car but he did not listen. She said they had “tried everything” to get out of the car, both when it had stopped and was moving, including door handles and trying to open the windows again but everything was locked.

Kerr said the Mewis had smashed the window, kicking it “a couple of times” with her boot while the car was still moving. Forbes asked whether they had discussed this beforehand, Kerr said no and that she felt “surprised”.

Forbes asked Kerr how she felt when it shattered? “Relieved, because I saw it as a way out,” she said.

After they got out of the car, which had parked outside Twickenham police station, Kerr approached police which she said left her feeling “relieved, because I thought they would help us” and that Lovell, on first impression “wasn’t that bad”.

After Lovell spoke to his colleague who stayed with the taxi driver, Kerr said his tone changed and he made the couple feel like they “were the ones who had done something wrong.”

Kerr said she began filming the interaction because she felt “this was a situation where I would need to prove that I was being treated poorly.”

Kerr said she felt “powerless” while in the police station and that they had the power to decide whether she “went home tonight”. She said she believed officers were “treating me differently based on what they perceived to be the colour of my skin.”

Forbes asked why Kerr mentioned lawyers from Chelsea football club. She said: “To make sure they knew I would have people who would protect me”. At one point, Kerr called her interactions with officers “triggering”. When asked to explain, Kerr said she had experience “of people trying to put things on me”.

The trial continues.

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