LONDON (AP) — A jury retired to consider its verdicts Monday in the trial of Australia soccer star Sam Kerr, who denies a charge of causing racially aggravated harassment.
The 31-year-old Chelsea striker, one of the world's top female players, called police constable Stephen Lovell “stupid and white” during an incident in south-west London on Jan. 30, 2023.
It is alleged that Kerr and her partner, West Ham midfielder Kristie Mewis, had been out drinking when they were driven to a police station by a taxi driver, who complained that they 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 insulting toward Lovell. Kerr has accepted calling him “stupid and white” during a heated exchange but during the trial at Kingston Crown Court denied that they amount to the charge.
Kerr denied using “whiteness as an insult," saying: “I believed it was him using his power and privilege over me because he was accusing me of being something I’m not."
Kerr told the court she felt “trapped” in the back of the taxi with Mewis and feared for her life, moments before Mewis broke the vehicle’s rear window.
The taxi driver has remained anonymous throughout court proceedings, which entered their sixth day Monday, and has never been called to give evidence as a witness.
Kerr, who identifies as a white Anglo-Indian, also told the court she believed police “were treating me differently because of what they perceived to be the color of my skin."
Kerr is the captain and all-time leading scorer for Australia’s women’s team with 69 goals since her debut in 2009.
Kerr joined Chelsea in 2019 and has scored 99 goals in 128 games for the London club, which is the defending English champion and a top contender for the Women’s Champions League title this season.
She hasn’t played since sustaining an ACL injury in January 2024, during a warm-weather training camp with Chelsea in Morocco. She is expected to return in the coming weeks.
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The Associated Press
