Kerr and her fiancé Kristie Mewis said in court that they felt like they were being kidnapped by the taxi driver when he rerouted from driving them home to a police station after Kerr had “spit-vomited” out the window.
Every woman who has walked down a street after dark has at some stage taken a longer route to stay on more populated roads, has taken a different route to stay under streetlights, has either removed their earphones or turned them off so that they can be alert to everything and everyone around them, has clasped their keys in their hand in case they need some kind of weapon.
Any woman who has been sitting in a cab and reached for the handle to find the door locked and felt their muscles instinctively tense for a split second until they hear the familiar clink of the car unlocking, even though they have been safely delivered to their requested destination, will have had an opinion on Sam Kerr’s court case.
Start with the Met police, which was found to be be institutionally racist, misogynistic and homophobic in a report less than two years ago and has a history (including a very recent history through the murder of Sarah Everard) of failing women, seemingly ignoring two women in significant distress.
The police did not subsequently request copies of emergency service calls, speed cameras and ANPR records were not checked, the taxi driver was taken at his word that he did not have a recording device in the vehicle and this was not checked.
