Australian soccer star Sam Kerr said she was “terrified” when “trapped” in a taxi in London before she was alleged to have caused racially aggravated harassment to a police officer, a court heard.
Australian soccer star Sam Kerr said she was “terrified” when “trapped” in a taxi in London before she was alleged to have caused racially aggravated harassment to a police officer, a court heard.
February 6, 2025 — 1.28am
London: Sam Kerr said she feared for her life when “trapped” in a taxi before she was alleged to have caused racially aggravated harassment to a police officer, a court heard.
The Australia captain gave evidence at her trial on Wednesday, saying she was “terrified” and her partner, West Ham midfielder Kristie Mewis, was “crying and scared.”
Kerr, who is one of the top women’s soccer players in the world, is on trial charged with causing racially aggravated harassment to police constable Stephen Lovell during an incident in south-west London in the early hours of January 30, 2023.
It is alleged that Kerr, 31, and 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 one of them was sick, 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 PC Lovell, calling him “stupid and white”. Kerr accepts making the comments but denies that they amount to the charge.
Giving evidence, Kerr told the jury she put her head out of the window when she began to feel sick before the driver “rolled it up” and began to “drive dangerously”.
She said the dangerous driving continued for 15 to 20 minutes.
“I was terrified for my life,” she said. “We were not in control…I deemed him to be dangerous because of the driving but also because he could have taken us anywhere. He couldn’t be tracked so no one knew where we were.”
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Kerr said the pair tried to open the doors and windows multiple times but they remained locked before Mewis “kicked out (the window) with her boot”.
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Footage from PC Lovell’s body-worn camera was previously played to jurors, in which Kerr tells him and PC Samuel Limb that she and Mewis were “very scared” and “trying to escape” the cab when they damaged the vehicle.
The court also heard that, at the police station, Kerr made reference to Sarah Everard, who was murdered by Met Police officer Wayne Couzens in 2023, telling officers about a “girl in Clapham” who “got raped and killed”.
She allegedly said to PC Lovell: “I know it wasn’t you…but both of us are scared.”
Born in Perth, she also made reference to the Australian Claremont serial killer: “I lived in a state where for 30 years there was a serial killer that was thought to have been a taxi driver. Everyone was talking about not getting in a taxi.”
In 2020, Bradley Robert Edwards was convicted of killing two women in separate abductions in the 1990s. Prosecutors at the time said Edwards lured the women into his work car, which looked like a taxi.
The trial continues.
AP
Audio source: Sam Kerr interview with police, Kingston Police Station, January 31, 2023.
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