Chelsea striker Sam Kerr has been cleared of causing racially aggravated harassment after calling a Metropolitan Police officer ‘stupid and white’.
The Australian striker was filmed making the comments to PC Stephen Lovell during an incident in south-west London in the early hours of January 30 2023.
Kerr, 31, and her partner, West Ham midfielder Kristie Mewis, were returning from a night out drinking when they were driven to Twickenham Police Station by the taxi driver who complained that they had refused to pay clean-up costs after one of them was sick and that one of them had smashed the vehicle’s rear window.
Once inside the police station, it was Kerr who allegedly became ‘abusive and insulting’ towards Pc Lovell, referencing his race and calling him ‘f****** stupid and white’.
A jury returned the not guilty verdict on Tuesday after deliberating at Kingston Crown Court since the previous day.
Kerr, who ho has not played since rupturing her ACL in January last year, did not deny what she said but pleaded not guilty to the charge.
Earlier in the trial, the Australian told the court that she made the comments because the policeman didn’t understand his privilege and treated her differently because of the colour of her skin.
Kerr identifies as white Anglo-Indian and said she first saw racism directed at her family when she was just nine or ten years old.
She added that the comments arose after she felt Lovell failed to listen to her and fiancée Mewis after they told him the taxi driver had tried to abduct them.
After Kerr vomited out of the window, both Kerr and Mewis said the driver soon began to ‘drive dangerously’, leading Mewis to break a window of the car with her boot in a bid to free themselves.
The pair added that the abduction and murder of Sarah Everard by Metropolitan Police officer Wayne Couzens was on their minds when the taxi driver locked the doors and refused to let them out.
The Australia international said she regretted the way she expressed herself upon reaching the station but added: ‘I feel the message was still relevant’.
She added: ‘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 had, they would never have to understand what we had just gone through and the fear we were having for our lives.’
In a parting statement, Judge Peter Lodder said: ‘I take the view her own behaviour contributed significantly to the bringing of this allegation and has a significant bearing on the question of costs.
‘She herself has to accept by virtue of video recording.’
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