Sam Kerr was arrested on a night out in London. Here's what allegedly happened

Australian soccer star Sam Kerr recently appeared in a London court to defend herself against charges of racially harassing a police officer. The accusation stems from her calling a police officer a "stupid white cop."

The trial's focus extends beyond Kerr's language towards Metropolitan Police Constable Stephen Lovell. More importantly, the court is investigating the events of the hours leading up to the incident, including a chaotic taxi ride, a smashed window, multiple calls to the police, and a tense, alcohol-fueled, and profanity-laden altercation with three police officers.

Let's now recap what happened on the night Sam Kerr went out for dinner and ended up being arrested at a London police station. The evening began with a date. Kerr and her partner, Kristie Mewis, testified to the court that on January 29, 2023, they went to Amazonico, a popular restaurant in London, and shared a bottle of wine while dining around 7 p.m.

Kerr stated in court that they later attended a friend's birthday party and subsequently went to a nightclub with friends. Kerr told the court that she had two cocktails during that time. Approximately 15 minutes after arriving at the nightclub, they stated they had had enough. "Ms. Kerr, is it fair to say you were drunk at that point?" prosecutor William Emlyn Jones KC asked in court. "Yes," Kerr replied. Kerr told the court she tried to call three Ubers, but none were available.

She told the jury that Uber was her preferred mode of transportation because the journey could be tracked. She was wary of hailing taxis on the street because she grew up in Perth, where there were rumors that a taxi driver was the Claremont serial killer. After failing to get an Uber, they stated that they hailed a London black cab on Oxford Street in central London and asked to be taken home. Kerr described the beginning of the taxi ride as "completely normal."

But she told the jury that she began to feel unwell, opened the window to get some fresh air, and rested her head on the windowsill. She said she started "spitting" out of the window, and from that point, the atmosphere changed. She told the court that the driver closed the window while her head was still resting on the windowsill and began driving erratically, swerving between lanes, and accelerating and decelerating sharply. Kerr said the driver was "screaming," and she and Mewis tried to ask him to pull over and let them out. They said they believed the driver was holding them "against our will." "It was like nothing I had ever experienced, I had never been in a car going that fast," Mewis told the court. Neither Sam Kerr nor Kristie Mewis was wearing a seatbelt at the time.

"I was so scared, I didn't have my seatbelt on...so I was just flying all over the back of the taxi," Kerr told the court. "He could have taken us anywhere...and I knew we were in a black cab that couldn't be tracked, so no one knew where we were." The trial heard that during the journey, the driver called the police, and Kerr also called emergency services. The prosecutor told the court that the driver called the police because he was concerned about the passengers' behavior. The police operator advised him to drive to the nearest police station. Kerr and Mewis denied knowing that the driver had called the police or being told that he was going to the police station.

Prosecutor William Emlyn Jones cross-examined Kerr about her claims. "What was happening in the taxi that caused your driver to call the police and then follow their advice?" he asked. "The two of you were being rowdy in the back." "No," Kerr replied. Mr. Emlyn Jones said the driver was likely asking the passengers to pay for the fare home and the vomit cleanup. Kerr denied any conversation about this. She also rejected the suggestion that she refused to pay the driver anything. "You had vomited in his taxi," he said. "Yes, outside (the window)," Kerr replied. "That's bad news for a taxi driver...they can't pick up other guests if there's vomit in the car." "I'm sure he could have."

Kerr admitted that she was drunk enough to vomit, but she denied that alcohol affected her perception of what happened. "Let's be clear – you still think the taxi driver was kidnapping you?" Mr. Emlyn Jones asked. "Yes," Kerr told the court. At approximately 2:20 a.m. on January 30, the taxi arrived at or near Twickenham Police Station in southwest London. Constable Stephen Lovell told the court that he was near a marked police car when he first noticed broken glass on the road near the police station. He then told the court that he found the taxi parked outside the police station and honking its horn. He said he saw Kerr climbing out of the taxi through the broken window, but did not activate his body-worn camera.

Mewis told the court that she kicked out the window. "I knew I had to do something dramatic to save us," she said. "If I was ever in the same situation again, I would do it again." Kerr described feeling "relief" when the glass broke because she "saw it as a way out." In a video played to the jury, Kerr was seen cleaning blood off her hand, which she cut when climbing out of the broken window. The court heard that Constable Lovell reported that the hard plastic screen between the taxi driver and passenger area had been damaged and appeared to have been kicked. Neither Kerr nor Mewis remembered any damage. "How did that get kicked through?" the prosecutor asked. "I don't know," Mewis replied. "Did you do it?" "I don't know." "Did Sam do it?" "I don't know."

What happened next was largely recorded by the 34-minute body-worn camera footage of Constable Shane Scott, one of the officers inside Twickenham Police Station in the early hours of January 30, 2023. He turned on his camera at 2:42 a.m., approximately 20 minutes after the taxi carrying Sam Kerr and Kristie Mewis arrived at the police station. Over the next half hour, the body-worn camera footage showed a lengthy interaction between Kerr, Mewis, and Constables Lovell, Lynn, and Scott. Throughout the interaction, Kerr repeatedly verbally abused and shouted at the police officers. The couple and the police officers frequently interrupted each other during the exchanges. In court, Constable Lovell agreed that at times the exchanges became "childish." "You, like, don't matter," Kerr told the police officer in the body-worn camera footage. "Okay, neither do you," Constable Lovell responded.

The police officers repeatedly stated that if they paid the taxi driver for the window damage, the taxi fare, and the cleanup of Kerr's vomit, they could go home. Kerr and Mewis repeatedly stated that they would pay the taxi fare and any cleaning fees. But Kerr adamantly stated that they would not pay for the damage to the taxi. "That stupid guy wouldn't let us out. I'm not paying for the bloody window," Kerr said inside the police station. The couple repeatedly pleaded with the police to investigate the taxi driver's behavior. "(The taxi driver) was going in (bloody) circles. Do you guys have his (bloody) route record?" Kristie Mewis asked. "Look at his route," Kerr said. "Do you guys have his route record?" Mewis asked. "That's not possible," one police officer replied. Constable Lovell confirmed to the jury that he never spoke directly to the taxi driver. His colleague, Constable Lynn, spoke to the driver and then relayed his account to Constable Lovell. The allegations about the taxi driver's behavior were never formally investigated by the police, and the driver did not provide evidence at this week's trial.

Under cross-examination by Grace Forbes, Constable Lovell stated that he made an "informed decision based on what my colleague (Constable Lynn) told me." In one moment in the body-worn camera footage, Constable Scott can be heard asking: "Lovell...is it just them two (Kerr and Mewis) getting arrested, or is (the taxi driver) getting arrested as well?" "He's not getting arrested," Constable Lovell replied. In Sam Kerr's testimony, she stated that throughout her time at the police station, she felt the police officers were "against her." Her lawyer, Grace Forbes, asked her to elaborate. "Firstly, (the police) didn't believe us, telling us things that I knew had happened that didn't actually happen, even though they didn't have any evidence, making me feel like a liar, making me doubt myself, calling me 'miss.' A lot of things." In Constable Lovell's testimony, he described Kerr's tone and demeanor as "quite rude."

In the video, she can be heard saying she was going to call a lawyer. "I'm not paying. I'll stay here until 4 a.m. and get a (bloody) Chelsea lawyer to deal with it," Kerr said. In cross-examination, the prosecution argued that this showed Kerr had power in the situation. The jury also watched another video from Constable Scott's body-worn camera, which had no audio, showing Kerr showing Constable Lovell her phone. The prosecution claimed Kerr was showing Constable Lovell her bank account to show off. "How did that make you feel?" the prosecutor asked. "Felt like I was being demeaned," Constable Lovell replied. Kerr disputed this, arguing she was showing the police officer her record of calling emergency services.

At the police station, Kerr repeatedly told the police that she had called the police from the taxi, but Constable Lovell repeatedly dismissed this claim. "Did you stay on the phone long enough to even speak to someone, that's the question?" Constable Lovell asked. "They hung up on us!" Kerr replied. "Okay, but they don't do that." Constable Lovell said he had tried but was unable to find a record of the call that night. But the defense provided the court with a recording of a call confirming that the police operator terminated the call and attempted to call Kerr back, but was unsuccessful. Police call logs confirmed that the driver called the police at 2:18 a.m., stating that he was outside Twickenham Police Station. The court heard that Sam Kerr initiated her emergency call at 2:21 a.m. Kerr claimed that they were near the police station at the time, but did not know they were near the building. "Why didn't you actually speak to them when the call was connected?" prosecutor William Emlyn Jones asked. "It was very chaotic. It was a very distressing experience," Kerr replied. A transcript of the driver's call to the police showed that the operator said he had spoken to the police about seven minutes earlier, or around 2:11 a.m.

The body-worn camera footage ultimately recorded Sam Kerr calling a police officer a "stupid white cop" and being arrested for racially aggravated harassment and damaging the taxi window. "You guys are (bloody) stupid white cops. Seriously, you guys are (bloody) stupid," Kerr can be heard saying in the footage. "Okay," Constable Lovell replied. "I'm looking at your eyes," Kerr said. "Why do you have to bring race into it?" Constable Shane Scott said. Kerr had also referred to the police officers as "white" and "privileged" in earlier recorded exchanges. During the trial, Constable Shane Scott said in a statement that he was not offended by Kerr's comments. Sam Kerr told the court that she used those words because she felt she was being treated differently by people in positions of power because of her skin color, but she said she did not intend to harass him. "I articulated it poorly in that video," Kerr said. "The point I was trying to make was that I felt like I was being treated differently, not being believed, being made out to be someone who had done something wrong because they were in positions of authority, and I believe that they were treating me differently because of my skin color." The court heard that she identifies as "white-Anglo-Indian" and has spoken multiple times about feeling that she has been treated differently because of her skin color. "At school, I've had situations where teachers always thought I was the one who was causing trouble, or the one who was instigating it, when we were obviously in an environment where there were a lot of people," she said. "Also, at shopping centers, if I'm dressed inappropriately, I'm often followed by security guards or staff."

In cross-examination, prosecutor William Emlyn Jones drew attention to her comment that Constable Lovell could not understand what it was like for two women to be trapped in the back of a taxi and feel scared. "That's an issue based on his perception as a man...rather than putting himself in the shoes of a woman," he said. "Yes," Kerr replied. "(That) has nothing to do with race, does it?" "Not entirely," she conceded. "Ms. Kerr, what you said to him was, you're stupid because you're white," he responded. "No," she replied. The prosecutor said she chose to "display...hostility towards him because he was white." "That's not what I meant," Kerr replied. "But that's what you did, isn't it?" "Yes," she conceded. She denied that she intended to hurt him with her comments. The prosecution also focused on Mewis's reaction when Kerr called Constable Lovell a "stupid white cop." Mr. Emlyn Jones suggested to her that she looked as though she wanted the ground to open up and "swallow" her, but she rejected this claim. "How were you feeling at that moment in the evening?" Forbes later asked her. "I just felt like I had kind of given up, and I obviously felt like we were being treated poorly, and I can't imagine how Sam was feeling if I was feeling sorry for her," she said.

Ultimately, the charge of criminal damage against Sam Kerr was dropped, and she was allowed to leave the police station after paying the taxi driver £900 ($1,796) in a deal facilitated by the police. Kerr said she did it partly to protect Mewis, in preparation for the 2023 Women's World Cup in Australia. "Towards the end of the night, Kristie and I spoke, and she relayed to me the importance of her not getting in trouble for this, because she was trying to make the (U.S.) World Cup team," Kerr told the court. At the time of the incident in London, Mewis was living in New York and playing for a team there. They both left the police station in the early hours of January 30. Later that day, at 10:30 p.m., Kerr voluntarily went to Kingston Police Station to be questioned about the incident, where she was not accompanied by a lawyer. She told the police that she did not remember calling the police officer a "(bloody) stupid white cop," but admitted to it after watching the body-worn camera footage. In a voluntary interview played to the court, Kerr apologized to the police for her behavior. "I really wish I had just walked away and dealt with it in the morning, like I am now...hindsight is always great," she told the police.

Constable Lovell provided a witness statement about the incident on January 30. It made no mention of how Kerr calling him a "stupid white cop" made him feel. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) later declined to prosecute Kerr, stating that the threshold for harassment, alarm, or distress was not met. The police appealed the decision, and the Crown Prosecution Service requested any further evidence statements. On December 5, 2023, Constable Lovell submitted a second witness statement detailing how he felt after being called a "stupid white cop," nearly 11 months after the alleged incident. In that statement, he said being called a "stupid white cop" left him feeling "shocked, upset, and made me feel demeaned," adding, "The words were too much, and I was very offended by it." Constable Lovell told the court that the reference to his race left him feeling "disheartened." He denied in court that he fabricated facts to push the charges, but admitted he was "determined" to prosecute her through the criminal courts.

Much of the trial has focused on what happened inside the black cab and the tense arguments recorded in the 34-minute body-worn camera footage. So much so that on the final day, the jury posed a question to the judge seeking clarification on the extent of the damage to the plastic barrier between the passengers and the driver inside the black cab. However, when the jury retired in London on Monday, the only question they had to consider was whether Sam Kerr intended to, and did, cause Constable Lovell harassment, alarm, or distress by calling him a "stupid white cop." They must also be sure that she used the words based on race. If convicted, Sam Kerr could face a maximum of two years in prison and a fine of nearly $5,000. She remains the captain of the Australian national women's soccer team, the Matildas, but they have not guaranteed her future captaincy. She has not played for Chelsea or Australia since early 2024 due to a knee injury.