Sam Kerr found not guilty of racially aggravated harassment of police officer | Sam Kerr

Sam Kerr has been found not guilty of racially aggravated harassment after calling a police officer “fucking stupid and white” after he doubted her claims of being “held hostage” in a taxi.

Kerr showed no emotion during the reading of the verdict, which the jury delivered after a little over four hours of deliberation, but gave a thumbs up to her barrister Grace Forbes.

The captain of the Australian women’s football team and Chelsea’s star striker had faced up to a maximum sentence of two years in prison.

The verdict is likely to spark debate about free speech and race, especially in the UK where there has been a recent spate of high-profile cases involving people of colour being charged with racially aggravated offences.

Judge Peter Lodder KC said after the verdict: “I take the view her own behaviour contributed significantly to the bringing of this allegation.

“I don’t go behind the jury’s verdict but that has a significant bearing on the question of costs.”

In a six-day trial, Kingston crown court heard that Kerr had called a Metropolitan police officer “fucking stupid and white” after he doubted her account of being “held hostage” in a locked taxi that was speeding and swerving.

During the trial it was revealed that the Crown Prosecution Service, the body which has the final say on whether a criminal prosecution can go ahead in England and Wales, initially decided against charging Kerr as the evidence did not meet the required threshold.

The CPS decided to charge her with racially aggravated intentional harassment after a second statement was provided by the officer involved, PC Stephen Lovell.

His second statement had been submitted in December 2023, 11 months after the incident. In it, he said her comments had left him “shocked, upset and humiliated”. His initial statement made no mention of how Kerr’s words affected him.

On 30 January 2023, Kerr and her partner, Kristie Mewis, had been on a night out before hailing a black cab in central London. During the journey, Kerr felt sick and opened the window. She put her head outside and vomited.

While her head was still sitting on the car’s open window frame, Kerr said the driver rolled it back up. A dispute began after they refused the driver’s request to pay for the cleaning up of the mess.

After this, Kerr and Mewis told the court that the driver locked the doors of the taxi and began speeding and swerving. Both said they had feared for their lives. The taxi driver called the police, unbeknownst to the couple. He was told to drive them to Twickenham police station.

Mewis told the court they had “tried everything to get out” before the West Ham player smashed a window after kicking it with both feet. About a minute and a half before the car arrived at the police station, Kerr rang emergency services.

After the car parked up outside the police station, Kerr crawled through the broken window and opened the door from the outside to let Mewis out. They willingly approached a marked police car where two officers, including Lovell, spoke to them. Lovell took them inside while the other officer stayed outside the station to speak to the taxi driver.

The pair told the court they were “relieved” to come into contact with officers. Soon after, however, Kerr said officers were “dismissive” of their claims. After Lovell spoke to his colleague, who had been talking to the taxi driver, Kerr said his tone changed and he made the couple feel as if they “were the ones who had done something wrong”.

Body-worn footage shown to the court, lasting about half an hour, shows Kerr saying: “We could not get out of the car, listen to the recording,” referring to the call they made in the cab, before saying she has “all the fucking people in the world”.

In the course of the exchange, Lovell doubts the pair’s claim of being “held hostage” in the cab. At one point, he says: “Do you think a taxi driver that was going to rape and kill you would drive you to a police station? No.”

Kerr responds: “You’re sick. You’re honestly sick. You’re literally a white privileged person. You’re literally a white privileged man.”

Lovell responds: “You don’t need to be racist towards me.”

Kerr told the court she believed officers were “treating me differently based on what they perceived to be the colour of my skin”. Mewis said she felt officers treated her differently in the station. At one point, Lovell told Kerr to “calm down young missy” and, in the course of the exchange, she said her treatment was a “racial fucking thing”.

Officers also cast doubt on Kerr and Mewis’s assertion that they had called police in the taxi but that the operator had hung up. The officers said they had no record of the call, claiming that phone operators would not hang up. During the trial, evidence emerged that they had called.

In the call, Kerr is heard saying to operators: “Hey, can you help me. He won’t let us out of his cab.” Mewis is also heard saying “let us out, please”. Emergency responders hung up on Kerr, saying they would call back. When they did, the pair were in the police station and the call went to voicemail.

After doubting the pair’s repeated assertion that they had called the police in the taxi, Kerr tells Lovell: “You guys are stupid and white, you guys are fucking stupid and white.” Kerr then looked up at Lovell and said: “I’m looking you in the eyes, I’m looking you in the eyes, you guys are fucking stupid.”