By Sam Tobin
LONDON (Reuters) -Australia women’s soccer captain Sam Kerr said she felt British police treated her differently because of the colour of her skin, as she gave evidence in a London court on Wednesday while on trial accused of racially abusing a white police officer.
Kerr, who has Indian ancestry, told officer Stephen Lovell that “you guys are fucking stupid and white” after police were called following a drunken dispute with a cab driver in the early hours of Jan. 30, 2023.
The 31-year-old, who plays for Chelsea in the Women’s Super League, accepts saying those words but has pleaded not guilty to one count of racially aggravated harassment. Her lawyer has argued she was making a comment about power and privilege.
Kerr gave evidence at Kingston Crown Court on Wednesday, as her mother, father and brother watched from the public gallery.
Prosecutor Bill Emlyn Jones told jurors on Monday that Kerr and her partner Kristie Mewis, who plays for West Ham United, were taken to a police station after a cab driver complained they tried to smash a window.
Kerr said she felt “terrified for my life” when the driver began driving erratically after she felt ill and spat out of the open window during the journey.
She told officers that she and Mewis thought they were being kidnapped after the cab driver would not take them home and that Mewis kicked in the rear window to try to escape.
Kerr gave evidence that she felt police officers unfairly took the cab driver’s side. Her lawyer Grace Forbes asked: “What did you feel was the power dynamic in that situation?”
Kerr replied: “I felt like I was powerless, they didn’t believe me and they had all the power in that moment.”
“I believed they were treating me differently based on what they perceived to be the colour of my skin,” she added.
‘QUITE EMBARRASSED’
Asked how she felt watching footage of her arguing with police officers, Kerr said: “It’s honestly really hard to watch myself act like that. I don’t normally act like that, so I’m quite embarrassed.
“I expressed myself poorly in that moment, for sure … the point I was trying to get across was I felt that they were treating me differently and not believing me and treating me as the person who had done something wrong,” she added.
Earlier, Kerr told the jury that she and Mewis plan to get married in December and that Mewis is pregnant with their first child, a boy, due to be born in May.
She also recounted how they first met after Mewis “slid into my DMs”, referring to direct messages on social media, prompting laughs from the public gallery and a quizzical look from Judge Peter Lodder.
Kerr, one of the world’s top female strikers and Australia’s all-time leading scorer with 69 goals, has not played since suffering an anterior cruciate ligament injury in January 2024.
Her trial is expected to conclude this week.
(Reporting by Sam Tobin; editing by Sarah Young and Ed Osmond)
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