Sam Kerr trial: Chelsea striker called police officer ‘stupid and white’, court told

Chelsea's Australian striker Sam Kerr arrives at Kingston Crown Court in south London. Photo / AFP

Chelsea and Australia striker Sam Kerr called a British police officer “stupid and white” during an incident at a police station, a jury was told on Monday.

Kerr, 31, is on trial charged with causing racially aggravated harassment to the officer during an incident in London in the early hours of January 30, 2023.

It is alleged that Kerr and her partner, fellow footballer Kristie Mewis, had been out drinking when they were driven to the police station in southwest London by a taxi driver.

The driver complained the passengers refused to pay clean-up costs after one of them vomited, and that one of them smashed the vehicle’s rear window.

At the police station, Kerr is alleged to have become “abusive and insulting” towards police constable Stephen Lovell.

Footage from Lovell’s body camera was played to a jury sitting at Kingston Crown Court, in which Kerr tells Lovell: “Honestly, you guys are ... stupid and white.”

Prosecutor Bill Emlyn Jones told the jury: “The defendant’s comments towards PC Lovell left him shocked, upset and humiliated.

“He took offence to the comments that Ms Kerr made about his race because you may think that his being a white man really had nothing to do with anything.”

The prosecutor added: “Ms Kerr denied that she intended to cause PC Lovell harassment, alarm or distress.

“She said ‘I was just very angry at how I felt.’ She described the entire situation as distressing and ‘a heated moment’.

“Ms Kerr said that both herself and Ms Mewis were crying at the time.”

Kerr, who is of mixed race, last year pleaded not guilty to the offence.

Grace Forbes, defending, told jurors: “Nobody disputes the words that were said. But simple words, even words like these, do not make you guilty of a criminal offence.”

She added: “The words were a comment, however poorly expressed, about positions of power, about privilege, and how those things might colour perception.”

Kerr made her debut for current Women’s Super League champions Chelsea in 2020. She is currently out of action with a knee injury.