A London court has been shown video footage of the moment soccer star Sam Kerr allegedly racially harassed a Metropolitan Police officer after a night out drinking.
WARNING: This story contains course language that was played in evidence to the jury.
The body-worn camera vision of Police Constable (PC) Stephen Lovell was played to the Kingston-on-Thames Crown Court on day one of Ms Kerr's trial.
The 31-year-old Australian is charged with the racially aggravated harassment of a police officer under the UK's public order act.
She has pleaded not guilty.
"You guys are f***king stupid and white, you guys are f***ing stupid and white," Ms Kerr is heard saying in the footage, which was played to the jury, as part of a 30-minute video of the interaction with police.
She was then arrested on racially aggravated public order offences and also for criminal damage.
The criminal damage charge was later withdrawn.
A night out goes wrong
On the first day of the trial, prosecutor William Emlyn Jones KC laid out what police allege occurred in the early hours of morning on January 30, 2023, when Ms Kerr and her partner, Kristie Mewis, had hailed a black cab to get home after a night out.
Mr Emlyn Jones KC said the two women had been drinking and one of them had vomited in the taxi.
"The [taxi driver] ended up phoning the police to complain about their behaviour, reporting they were trying to smash a window and instead of taking them to the defendant's home, which is where the cab was initially asked to go, instead he drove them straight to Twickenham police station," Mr Emlyn Jones KC said.
The court was told that as the taxi pulled up at the station at 2:20am, PC Lovell and his partner were arriving back from an unrelated job and noticed glass on the road, as well as Ms Kerr climbing out of a broken window of the car.
The officer asked the two women to come into the police station.
Two other officers discussed the incident with the pair and PC Lovell in the station.
Footage from one police officer's body camera, shown in court, shows the pair in the station waiting area, often shouting over one another and officers as they try to explain their version of events.
During the extended and emotional interaction with police, both women said they thought they were being "kidnapped" by the driver.
Ms Kerr tells the officers that she and her partner were "scared" when the taxi driver began driving in a different direction to their home.
"We called police as well, we were held hostage in that cab," Ms Kerr said.
"When a male is driving a f***ing car fast with two women, it's f***ked, it is f***ing scary.
"Put your shoes in a female's shoes, we were both trapped for 30 minutes in a male's car who was unapologetically not dealing with us, you have to understand the emergency that both of us felt."
One of the key issues discussed was the broken window and who would pay for the damage to the cab.
At one point, the vision shows Ms Kerr holding her phone up to PC Lovell, which he said showed her bank account details.
During the interaction, Ms Kerr indicated she would be happy to pay for any damage or clean-up if she was at fault.
"Listen to the recording [in the taxi] — because I would never say no to f***ing paying," she said to the officer.
"He's making that sh*t up.
"This is a racial f***king thing."
PC Lovell told the court in that moment Ms Kerr raised the phone to him, it felt like he was "trying to be belittled" by her.
On the video, Ms Mewis admitted to breaking the window of the cab, saying that she wouldn't have done so if she weren't scared and trying to get away.
Officers in the video told the pair they would make enquiries with the driver about the route he took.
They also made several attempts to understand the nature of the call the pair say they made to police from the taxi.
After being warned about the possibility of being arrested for being drunk and disorderly, they were eventually allowed to leave the station, after Ms Kerr was charged with racially aggravated harassment at 3:17am.
Mr Emlyn Jones KC told the court that Ms Kerr identifies as "white-Anglo-Indian".
"The defendant was obviously upset and angry about what happened and about how the police were handling the situation," he said.
"The defendant became abusive and insulting and specifically insulted him by reference to his ethnicity.
"The issues are not so much what did she say, but what did she mean by the abuse that she directed at the officer dealing with her? What did she intend? And, secondly, how did it make PC Lovell feel?"
Throughout the day of evidence, Ms Kerr sat attentively and took notes on a small notepad.
Kerr speaks again to police about incident
The court heard Ms Kerr returned voluntarily to the police station the next day to be interviewed about the incident.
She told police that she had vomited out of the window of the cab before the driver began driving aggressively.
During the interview she said she didn't recall calling the officers "f***ing stupid and white".
On being played the footage, she then accepted that she had said that.
Mr Emlyn Jones KC told the court that during the interview with police, Ms Kerr said that she was "just very angry … that's how I felt".
"The entire situation was distressing," he said she told officers.
When questioned on whether she believed her words were racist or not, Mr Emlyn Jones KC told the court that she said, "I'm aware that anything can be perceived as racist for sure," but denied intending to cause harm.
He added in court that Ms Kerr said she "wished she had just walked away and gone home".
The criminal damage charge was dropped after the pair agreed to pay to fix the cab.
PC Lovell gives evidence
During his evidence in court on Monday, local time, PC Lovell was asked by Mr Emlyn Jones KC how he would describe Ms Kerr's "tone and demeanour" towards him.
"Like, abusive," he replied.
"The defendant called you 'f***ing stupid and white' … how did that make you feel?
"Upset," he replied.
The police officer is only part way through giving his evidence to the court and has not yet been cross examined by Ms Kerr's barrister, Grace Forbes.
In her opening, Ms Forbes told the court nobody disputes the words that her client had said, "but simply saying words, even words like these does not make you guilty of a criminal offence, the law is a little more nuanced and a little more human that that".
She told the jury that the charge came down to "intent, affect" and "racial aggravation".
"When you look past the headline and you look at the evidence you will see that Samantha Kerr did not feel hostile towards this officer because he was white," she said.
"We saw a comment, however poorly expressed, about positions of power, about privilege and about how those things might colour perception."
Ms Kerr's parents and brother were in court on day one of the trial.
A small number of supporters were also present.
Ms Kerr is expected to give evidence when the case returns to court on Tuesday.
