A police officer told a London court on Tuesday that he was determined to pursue the prosecution of Chelsea and Australia football star Sam Kerr after she called him “stupid and white”.
Kerr, 31, is charged with causing racially aggravated harassment to police constable Stephen Lovell during an incident in southwest London in the early hours of January 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.
He complained that they had refused to pay clean-up costs after one of them had vomited, and that one of them had smashed the vehicle’s rear window.
The women told officers the driver had been “acting in a crazy way” by driving fast, repeatedly stopping and speeding up again, locking them in the car, and refusing to let them go for about 15 minutes, Kingston Crown Court heard.
Footage from Lovell’s body-worn camera was previously played to jurors, in which Kerr told Lovell and another police officer that she and Mewis were “very scared” and “trying to escape” the cab when they damaged the vehicle.
At the police station Kerr, who is of mixed race, is alleged to have become “abusive and insulting” towards Lovell, using an expletive and calling him “stupid and white”.
Kerr accepts making the comments but denies that they amount to the charge.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) originally decided not to charge Kerr, the court heard.
It was put to Lovell that he only provided a statement alleging that Kerr’s comments had caused alarm or harassment after that decision.
In his first statement to the CPS, the officer made no mention of the “stupid and white” comment having an impact on him, the jury was told.
Prosecutors
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