Australian soccer star Sam Kerr has told a London court she called a police officer "stupid and white" because she felt she was being treated differently because of her skin colour by a person in a position of power, but said she didn't mean to harass him.
Later, under intense cross-examination, the prosecutor questioned her recollection of the incident with police and the taxi ride leading up to it, saying she was "kicking off" because she was drunk.
Ms Kerr took to the witness box for the first time in her high-profile trial, where she faces one charge of racially aggravated harassment of Metropolitan Police officer Police Constable (PC) Stephen Lovell.
She allegedly harassed the officer amid a dispute about a taxi ride in London in 2023. She pleaded not guilty to the charge last year.
In her evidence given at Kingson-on-Thames Crown Court on Wednesday, she said she was "terrified" for her life during the journey, stating that her and her partner Kristie Mewis were being held "against our will".
Ms Kerr is captain of the Matildas, and a striker for the London-based Chelsea Football Club in the UK's Women's Super League.
Kerr explains her words 'stupid and white'
Giving evidence for nearly four hours, Ms Kerr was questioned about the language she used towards PC Lovell and two other officers in Twickenham police station that was recorded on a police body-cam.
The 30-minute long interaction, described as a "heated argument" by Ms Kerr, centred around the taxi journey and who would pay for the damage to the broken window.
It's alleged that Ms Kerr wouldn't pay the cleaning fare after being sick, but she denied not being willing to pay in court.
The driver then phoned police, who advised him to drive the pair to the nearest police station — something Ms Kerr said she wasn't told at the time.
In the video, both Ms Kerr and Ms Mewis tell officers they repeatedly begged to be let out of the taxi but weren't allowed by the driver.
Both claim they were being held against their will and were scared for their lives.
Ms Mewis said she broke the window because she was scared before Ms Kerr crawled out through it.
They also tell the officer they called police but were hung up on, something PC Lovell respond to by saying, "they wouldn't do that though, would they".
Ms Kerr then called PC Lovell "f***ing stupid and white".
"What were you expressing or trying to express with that comment," Ms Kerr's lawyer, Grace Forbes, asked her.
"I expressed myself poorly in that video," Ms Kerr said.
"The point I was trying to get across was I felt like they were treating me differently and not believing me and treating me as a person who had done something wrong, because they were in a position of power, and I believed they were treating me differently because of the colour of my skin," Ms Kerr said.
"I think that if people in a position of power or someone with position of privilege doesn't understand or acknowledge that, that's very dangerous and I think this happens everywhere around the world, I have experienced this multiple times."
The phone call made to police by Ms Kerr was played to the jury on Wednesday. It confirmed that police operators terminated the call and attempted to call her back without success.
In the body-worn camera, PC Lovell can be heard questioning Ms Kerr as to why a taxi driver would take people he was planning on "raping and murdering" to a police station, to which Ms Kerr responds by saying, "you're sick, you're honestly sick".
"I thought he was making light of what had happened to us, it was almost an antagonising comment," she told the court.
"Immediately after that exchange with PC Lovell, you say 'you're literally a white f***ing privileged person'," Ms Forbes said.
"Why did you use the words 'white privilege' there?," she asked her client.
"It was clear he had no idea about the privilege he had in that moment or in life," she responded.
"He's never experienced that or [had to] think about what could happen to you as a female."
When asked if she had any hostility toward white people, she said, "no, absolutely not".
She described herself as "white-Anglo-Indian" to the court and said that there had been multiple occasions when she felt she had been treated differently because of the colour of her skin.
"At school I had experienced being in situations where teachers had instigated that I was the troublemaker or the starter of trouble when clearly we were in a large setting of people," she said.
"Also at a shopping centre, if I'm not dressed correctly I have often been followed around the shopping centre by security guard or staff member."
Ms Forbes asked her client if there were any experiences in Australia that made Ms Kerr wary of hailed cabs.
"I lived in a state [Western Australian] where for 30 years there was actually a serial killer that was thought to have been a taxi driver, that everyone was talking about not to get into taxis," she replied.
The case, known as the 'Claremont Killer' was solved in 2020 but he was not a taxi driver.
Kerr's cross-examination begins
Late on Wednesday, local time, prosecutor William Emlyn Jones KC began cross-examining Ms Kerr about her recollection of the events of the night.
"By the time you leave the club and try for an Uber, and then hail a cab, it's fair to say that, Ms Kerr, you were drunk," Mr Emlyn Jones said.
"Yes," she replied.
"You were so drunk that you were sick," he said.
"Yes," she agreed.
"Do you think that your level of drunkenness might've had an impact on your perception on what was happening to you in the taxi?"
"No."
"Let's be clear about this — do you still believe that the taxi driver was kidnapping you?"
"Yes."
He questioned whether the new information shared at the trial had made her rethink the night.
"You now know that he drove you to a police station because the police had advised him to drive you to a police station," he said.
"There is a difference between what you know now and what you knew then."
He asked whether that new information made her reflect that "maybe at the time we got this wrong".
She said "no".
"Your impression is someone who was drunk and got it wrong," he said, something she disagreed with.
She denied remembering anything about the driver and rejected his suggestion that a conversation must have been had about her being sick in the car.
Both PC Lim and the driver said the plastic divider between the passenger and front section of the cab had been damaged.
Ms Kerr also denied that.
"What is going on in the cab that makes your driver phone the police and then follow their advice?," he asks.
"You two were kicking off in the back."
"No," she replied.
Kerr's 'very good' memory claim questioned
When asked by the prosecutor how good her memory was of the night, Ms Kerr responded, "very good".
"When you are asked less than 24 hours later in [a voluntary police] interview if you recall calling PC Lovell "f***ing stupid and white" you had no recollection," he said.
"If you didn't remember that it's fair to say there's lots of things that you didn't remember about that night," he added.
"It was a very distressing night for me I wasn't jotting down word-for-word," Ms Kerr responded.
He described Ms Kerr's memory of the event two years on as "miraculous".
Ms Kerr's cross-examination is expected to continue on Thursday when the trial resumes.
