Australian soccer star Sam Kerr has denied using a London police officer's "whiteness" as an insult under cross-examination in court, with the full video of her interaction with police being released.
Ms Kerr was grilled about why she used the term "stupid and white" toward Constable Stephen Lovell, accepting in court that she used his "whiteness" to show hostility toward him, amid a dispute about a taxi ride in London in 2023.
She pleaded not guilty to the charge last year.
The Australian soccer star and her fiancee both cried during an intense day at her high-profile trial on a charge of racially harassing a police officer.
Her partner, Kristie Mewis, sobbed as she described feeling in fear of her life the night the pair believed they were being taken hostage in the taxi.
In the dock, Ms Kerr could be seen wiping away a tear as her fiancee described her as "humble" and how she "wouldn't want anyone else" to be the mother of her child.
The Australian Matilda's captain and Chelsea Football Club striker had been living in London at the time of the incident at Twickenham police station in January, 2023.
Full police body cam footage released
The 34-minute police body cam vision was captured by Constable Shane Scott on January 30, 2023, inside Twickenham police station in London.
Constable Scott turned his camera on at 2:42am, roughly 20 minutes after the pair and the taxi arrived at Twickenham police station.
Ms Kerr and Ms Mewis have told the court this week that they were drunk and police have told the court they were in distress, following a taxi ride, in which they have said they were held "hostage".
Much of the conversation in the lead-up to the comment at the centre of the trial involves officers pushing the pair to pay for the damage to the broken taxi window, which they decline to do.
The video was played to the jury unedited on Monday and was released to media by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) on Thursday.
The clip provided to the ABC and embedded in this article is not identical to what was played in court.
In court, the jury saw and heard Ms Kerr and Ms Mewis, and constables Lovell, Scott and Lim interacting in the front office of the station.
The audio was also played unedited.
In the video provided by the CPS, the coarse language has been bleeped, and everyone except Ms Kerr has been blurred out.
The ABC asked the CPS why this was the case.
"She [Ms Kerr] is the one on trial, so she is the only one left unblurred. That's our usual approach and we won't be issuing another version of this video," a CPS spokesman said in an email.
The contents of this video have been key evidence relied on by the defence and prosecution this week to form their arguments.
Kerr's cross-examination continues
Prosecutor William Emlyn Jones KC cross-examined Ms Kerr for almost five hours this week.
On Thursday morning, Mr Emlyn Jones KC focused on what Ms Kerr said after she called PC Lovell "stupid and white".
"Then you said he [PC Lovell] is 'f***ing stupid and white'," Mr Emlyn Jones put to Ms Kerr.
"Yes," Ms Kerr replied.
"What did his race have to do with anything?," he asked.
"As I've explained to you before, I felt it was him using his power and privilege over me because he perceived me to be something I'm not," she said.
He said yesterday Ms Kerr told the court that PC Lovell couldn't understand what it was like for two women to be in the back of a taxi being driven by a stranger and being scared.
"That is a problem based on his perception as a man … not putting himself in the shoes of a woman," he said.
"Yes," Ms Kerr replied.
"[It's got] nothing to do with race has it."
"Not particularly," she admitted.
"What you were saying to him, Ms Kerr, was you're stupid because you're white," he responded.
"No," she replied.
The prosecutor said that she chose to "demonstrate … hostility to him because of his whiteness".
"That's not what I meant," Ms Kerr replied.
"That is what you did though, isn't it."
"Yes," she admitted.
She told the court this week that she never intended to cause harm to PC Lovell with her words, saying she "expressed herself poorly", something the prosecution took issue with.
"When you insulted him you meant to hurt him, didn't you?," Mr Emlyn Jones questioned.
"I didn't think in that moment that I meant to hurt him, no," she said.
The "stupid and white" comment came at the end of an interaction with three police officers, including PC Lovell.
Ms Kerr's claims to PC Lovell that they had contacted police from the cab but had been hung-up on was dismissed by the officer, who said, "they wouldn't do that though".
The call played in court this week confirmed Ms Kerr's call was terminated by an operator.
Much of the conversation in the lead-up involved officers pushing the pair to pay for the damage to the taxi window, which they initially declined to do while claiming they had done nothing wrong.
"What were you trying to express when you made that remark, 'you're stupid and white'?" Ms Kerr's lawyer, Grace Forbes, asked her client.
"That they would never, due to their power and privilege, experience what we had just gone through and the fear that we were in for our lives," she responded.
Kerr questioned on power and privilege
Ms Kerr said in evidence and in cross-examination that she felt the officers had the power and privilege in the situation.
But the prosecution spent much of Thursday looking at a series of events which they said showed Ms Kerr had power.
In the video she could be heard referring to calling lawyers and having Chelsea Football Club behind her.
At the start of the 30-minute clip captured by PC Shane Scott, Ms Kerr could be seen gesturing her phone toward PC Lovell, but no audio was captured.
The prosecution argued that was her showing off the bank account, something PC Lovell said made him feel "belittled".
But Ms Kerr told the court on Thursday that wasn't the case and in fact she had been showing him her phone records of her call to police.
She told the court the references to having a legal team to call on were a "bluff" to try and protect herself through a situation that she found scary.
Kristie Mewis cross-examined
In her evidence, Ms Mewis began to cry as she recalled the taxi journey from the night of January 30, 2023, saying she "feared for her life" after the driver's driving became "manic".
"We were just locked in a cab, we had no control over where we were going, we weren't being communicated to," Ms Mews told the court.
She denied refusing to pay the taxi fare or for the clean-up fee after Ms Kerr was sick during the journey.
She confirmed that she had broken the taxi window, saying that she did so because "I had to do something dramatic to save us, that's just how I felt in the moment".
But under cross-examination, she couldn't recall which of the taxi window's she'd kicked through and smashed.
She also couldn't say who damaged the divider, between the passenger's section of the taxi and the driver.
"Is that an example of your drunkenness impairing your memory of what actually happened here," Mr Emlyn Jones asked.
"No," she replied.
She told the court she had seen Ms Kerr treated differently because of her skin colour "multiple times" and became emotional when describing her fiancé.
"Sam is so loving and she's so humble … she would help anybody," she said.
"That's one of the things I love about her so much… she inspires me every day and … I wouldn't want anyone else to be the mother of my child.
"She treats everyone the same, she's not arrogant in the slightest and makes everybody feel at home."
The criminal damage charge against the pair was dropped, after Ms Kerr transferred 900 pounds ($1,796) to the driver.
Ms Mewis told the court the funds were transferred because they wanted to end the dispute and she was concerned the incident would impact her selection for the United States's soccer team at the 2023 World Cup.
At the time of the incident, she was a professional soccer player living in the United States and playing for a team in New York.
Ms Mewis's cross-examination is expected to continue tomorrow when the trial resumes.
She is pregnant with the couple's first child and is expecting to give birth in May.
Kerr accuses officers of racism in video
In the body-cam vision, both Ms Kerr and Ms Mewis repeatedly try to tell police that they had been held "hostage" by the taxi driver.
The pair both told the court this week that they felt the police had been "dismissive" of their story, instead believing the cab driver, who said they had refused to pay the fare.
At one point in the video, Ms Kerr accuses the three police officers of racism, saying, ""This is a racial f***ing thing."
She previously told the court she felt like she was being treated differently by the officers because of the colour of her skin.
"Do you accept that there is no basis for that," the prosecutor questioned.
"It's how I perceived it," she replied.
"Do you accept objectively, that there's no evidence that anyone has been motivated by racism in this incident?," he followed up.
"That's not how I perceived it."
Ms Kerr was reminded that she had no recollection of the taxi driver, who the court was told was of south-Asian heritage and had a strong accent.
"If the taxi driver was Asian and they were believing him, plainly, on any assessment they were making on the situation, was not being made on race, do you agree?," Mr Emlyn Jones asked.
"Yes," Ms Kerr responded.
"What if when the police were forming their own view as to what had really got on here, what if they were just getting it right?," he asked.
"They weren't," she said.
A verdict is not expected this week.
