After “fearing for my life,” Chelsea striker Sam Kerr claimed to have been treated differently by police “because of the color of my skin.” He was referring to an incident with a cab driver in a court hearing on Wednesday.
The mixed-race Australia captain is accused of harassing police officer Stephen Lovell in a confrontation in south-west London on January 30, 2023, and is facing racial abuse charges.
A taxi driver claimed Kerr, 31, and her partner, West Ham midfielder Kristie Mewis, had been drinking when they were pulled over to the Twickenham police station and that they had refused to pay the pair’s expenses for cleaning up after one of them had fallen ill, and that one of them had also smashed the rear window of the car.
The court was told on Tuesday that Kerr had become “abusive and insulting” towards Lovell, calling him “stupid and white”.
But Kerr, giving evidence on Wednesday, said: “I believed (officers) were treating me differently because of what they perceived to be the colour of my skin –- particularly PC Lovell’s behaviour”.
“The way he later arrested me for criminal damage, despite Kristie claiming it was only her (who broke the window in the taxi),” he claimed. I remember when I believed they were attempting to put it on me.
Before the driver “rolled it up” and “driving dangerously,” Kerr told the jury earlier on Wednesday that she had put her head out of the window when she started to feel sore.
She added the dangerous driving continued for 15 to 20 minutes, saying: “I was terrified for my life. Being in a car with a stranger I perceived as dangerous was all that was going through my mind. He had no logic in mind. It was his way or nothing”.
Kelly instructed him to stop the car, but nothing about his driving was changed. No one knew where we were. Kristie was very distressed. She was crying and scared. That’s the first time I’ve ever seen her, which frightened me even more.
The pair tried to unlock the windows and doors several times, according to Kerr, but they remained locked.
Mewis eventually “kicked out (the window) with her boot” which led Kerr to feel “relieved”.
But she added: “We didn’t get out straight away as the car was still moving”.
Source: Channels TV
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