Australian soccer star Kerr found not guilty of racially aggravated harassment of police officer

Sam Kerr, one of the world's top female soccer players, was found not guilty Tuesday of the racially aggravated harassment of a police officer.

Kerr, a striker for Australia and for English club Chelsea, accepted she called Police Constable Stephen Lovell "stupid and white" during a heated exchange at a police station after a night out in London in January 2023, but had denied that it amounted to the charge.

The verdict came after more than four hours of deliberations by a 12-person jury and on the seventh day of the trial at Kingston Crown Court in London.

Kerr showed no emotion during the reading of the verdict, Britain's Press Association reported, but gave a thumbs-up to her lawyer, Grace Forbes, after the judge had left.

It is alleged Kerr and her fiancee, Kristie Mewis, a U.S. soccer player contracted to English team West Ham, had been out drinking when they were driven to the 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.

Kerr, who identifies as a white Anglo-Indian, said: "I believed it was him using his power and privilege over me because he was accusing me of being something I'm not ... I was trying to express that due to the power and privilege they [the police] had, they would never have to understand what we had just gone through, and the fear we were having for our lives."

After the jury reached its verdict, Judge Peter Lodder said of Kerr: "I take the view her own behaviour contributed significantly to the bringing of this allegation. I don't go behind the jury's verdict but that has a significant bearing on the question of costs."

Kerr's trial has been headline news in Australia,