The Metropolitan police officer at the centre of Sam Kerr’s criminal trial did not mention being upset by being called “stupid and white” by the footballer in his first statement about the incident, a court has heard, and only included it in a further statement 11 months later.
On Monday Kingston crown court heard that Kerr, 31, the captain of the Australian women’s football team and Chelsea’s star striker, had called PC Stephen Lovell “fucking stupid and white” at Twickenham police station after he doubted her claim of being “held hostage” by a taxi driver after a night out with her partner, Kristie Mewis, in January 2023.
On Tuesday 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.
But the CPS decided to charge her with racially aggravated intentional harassment after a second statement was provided by Lovell in December 2023, 11 months after the incident. He said her comments had left him “shocked, upset and humiliated”. She denies the charges.
During cross-examination on Tuesday, Kerr’s defence barrister, Grace Forbes, asked Lovell about this first statement, which was submitted on the day of the incident which occurred in the early hours of 30 January 2023. She put it to Lovell: “Your first statement made no mention of stupid and white having had an impact.”
Lovell said it did not.
She then accused Lovell of submitting a second statement in December 2023 “because the CPS declined to charge Kerr”, saying “only a year later did you make mention of these words having had an impact on you … The CPS identified there was no evidence of harassment, alarm or distress. You knew that was the obstacle?”.
“No,” Lovell said.
“You are claiming this impact purely to get a criminal charge over the line?” she asked him.
“No,” he said.
Lovell was also asked about Kerr’s status as a well-known sports star. Forbes suggested to him: “You made an assumption about her that she was a troublemaker, that she was difficult and, because of what she does for a living, she was an arrogant person?”
In response, Lovell said he did not know what Kerr did for a living.
Forbes disputed his denial, saying “you told her very early on, that you knew exactly who she was”. Lovell said he did not recall saying that but he knew she was a “famous football player” after a colleague told him.
Kerr and Mewis had ended up at the station after a dispute with a cab driver about paying to clean up after one of them was sick in the cab.
Forbes said one of Lovell’s colleagues asked him if only Kerr and Mewis would be arrested or whether the driver would be too. Forbes said Lovell’s response, according to body-worn camera footage, “was to screw up your face and say, ‘He’s not going to get nicked.’”
Lovell replied that he had not spoken directly to the driver but that he had made an “informed decision” based on an account given to him by a colleague.
Forbes also mentioned footage of Lovell saying to Kerr, “Calm yourself down, young missy.”
In response, he told the court: “I was trying to get my point across.”
Bill Emlyn Jones, for the prosecution, asked Lovell to read out sections from his second statement. In it, he described Kerr’s comments as leaving him “shocked, upset” and “feeling humiliated”. On the comments about his race specifically, he said: “They were too far and I took great offence to them.”
Two witness statements from other officers present said Kerr had made numerous remarks about “white privilege”, the court heard, adding she had called one officer “literally a white privilege man”.
“I wasn’t sure why Kerr mentioned skin colour, as no one had done so previously,” one of the statements said.
Kerr visited Twickenham police station at 10.30pm on 30 January 2023. She was not accompanied by a lawyer.
PC Ryan Skinner interviewed Kerr. In an audio recording of the interview played to the court on Tuesday, Kerr said she “was in a taxi, and I did vomit outside the window”, after which “the taxi driver became very aggressive, and drove very very dangerously”.
She said she had clicked the “emergency thing” on her phone and spoken to someone.
Initially, Kerr said she did not recall calling any of the officers “fucking stupid and white” but, after being shown footage of her making these remarks, she said: “I was obviously intoxicated and I shouldn’t have been so front-footed but I was very, very threatened with how I felt and I’m a very honest person.
“I didn’t feel protected in that moment as a female and I’m here voluntarily because I want this sorted out.”
She later added that she did not feel protected in the police station because “we only spoke to three males even though we were with a dangerous male”.
Skinner asked Kerr if her comments could be perceived as racist. She replied: “I am aware that anything can be perceived as racist, for sure.”
Kerr told Skinner that she would “apologise” to the officers for the “whole event”. “I wish I walked away and dealt with it in the morning, like I am now. Hindsight is a beautiful thing,” she said.
The trial continues.
