Chelsea striker on trial for calling Met police officer ‘stupid and white’
Chelsea striker on trial for calling Met police officer ‘stupid and white’
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Chelsea striker Samantha Kerr called a Metropolitan Police officer “stupid and white” during an incident at a police station, a jury has been told. The Australian football star, 31, is on trial charged with causing racially aggravated harassment to the officer during an incident in south-west London, in the early hours of January 30 2023. It is alleged that Kerr and her partner, fellow footballer Kristie Mewis, had been out drinking when they were driven to Twickenham Police Station by a taxi driver who complained the passengers 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 Stephen Lovell. Footage from Pc Lovell’s body worn camera was played to a jury sitting at Kingston Crown Court on Monday, in which Kerr tells Pc Lovell: “Honestly, you guys are f***ing stupid and white.”. Prosecutor Bill Emlyn Jones KC told the jury: “The defendant’s comments towards Pc Lovell left him shocked, upset, and humiliated.
“He took offence to the comments that Ms Kerr made about his race because you may think that his being a white man really had nothing to do with anything.”. The prosecutor added: “Ms Kerr denied that she intended to cause Pc Lovell harassment, alarm or distress. “She said: ‘I was just very angry at how I felt.’. “She described the entire situation as distressing and ‘a heated moment’. “Ms Kerr said that both herself and Ms Mewis were crying at the time.”.
Kerr, of Richmond, pleaded not guilty the offence at Kingston Upon Thames Crown Court on March 4 2024. Grace Forbes, defending, told jurors on Monday: “Nobody disputes the words that were said. “But simple words, even words like these, do not make you guilty of a criminal offence.”. She added: “The words were a comment, however poorly expressed, about positions of power, about privilege, and how those things might colour perception.”.
