The police officer at the centre of Sam Kerr’s trial has denied changing his statement to get a criminal charge over the line, a court has heard.
Kerr, the Chelsea and Australia striker, denies causing racially aggravated harassment to PC Stephen Lovell in the early hours of January 30, 2023.
The Crown Prosecution Service authorised police to charge Kerr after Lovell provided a second witness statement, 10 months after his first. The CPS had originally ruled the evidence against Kerr did not meet the threshold for a criminal charge following the officer’s first statement.
Footage from Lovell’s body-worn camera was played to the court on Monday, in which Kerr could be heard to have called the officer “f------ stupid and white”.
The court heard how Lovell submitted his first witness statement on January 30, 2023, and a second on December 5.
Defence lawyer Grace Forbes questioned Lovell over his two statements. “Your first statement made no mention of the words stupid and white having had an impact,” Forbes said.
Lovell confirmed it did not.
“The only reason you made that second statement was because the CPS declined to authorise a criminal charge to prosecute Miss Kerr,” Miss Forbes said.
Lovell denied this was the case. The officer was asked whether he was a football fan, to which he replied: “No.”
Forbes then asked the officer: “You were thinking about challenging that decision as early as August 2023?”
Lovell replied: “Yes.”
Forbes asked: “Throughout July and August 2023, the Women’s World Cup was playing wasn’t it?”
Lovell replied: “If you say it was, yes.”
Forbes asked: “Do you recall you seeing her, this person who made you feel unimportant, this person who made you feel belittled?”
“No,” the officer replied.
“I am going to suggest you are claiming to experience this [feeling of alarm, harassment or distress] purely to get a criminal charge over the line,” Forbes said.
Lovell denied this.
Lovell ‘determined’ to pursue Kerr through the courts
When asked if he was “determined” to pursue Kerr through the courts, the officer replied: “Yes.”
Forbes said Lovell made an assumption that Kerr was a “troublemaker” and “difficult” because of what she does for a living and that she was an “arrogant” person. Lovell denied this was the case.
The court heard on Monday how Kerr and her partner, United States international Kristie Mewis, had got into a row with a taxi driver following a drunken night out.
Kerr had then called Lovell “f------ stupid and white” after he had doubted her and Mewis’s claim they were being “held hostage” by the taxi driver.
The court was played a 15-minute clip of the voluntary interview Kerr gave to PC Ryan Skinner, the investigating officer, later that evening.
Kerr told Skinner she did not recall calling Lovell “stupid and white”.
But after being played the officer’s body-worn camera, she explained that she had feared for her life.
“I was obviously intoxicated and shouldn’t have been so front-footed,” Kerr said after hearing back the insult she had directed at Lovell.
“I was very, very threatened with how I felt. I am a very honest person and I didn’t feel protected in that moment as a female. I’m here voluntarily because I want to sort this out.
Kerr: I felt very threatened
“In that moment I felt very threatened for how I was being treated and for my life in that cab.
“I didn’t feel heard or protected in the police station.”
When asked whether she had anything to say to Lovell following the incident, Kerr said: “Just sorry, I understand he was doing his job and didn’t know where we had come from.
“Apologies for putting him in the situation to deal with for so long and deal with two angry girls. Apologise for the whole event because it could have not happened if we had just left it and spoke about it in the morning.”
Kerr and Mewis are expected to give evidence on Wednesday.
Kerr is Australia’s all-time leading goalscorer with 69 goals. The alleged incident took place in Twickenham, south-west London, on January 30, 2023, a day after Kerr had scored a hat-trick in Chelsea’s FA Cup victory over Liverpool.
The 31-year-old, who has scored 99 goals in 128 appearances for Chelsea, has not played in more than a year after rupturing her anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in January 2024.
The forward sustained the injury a week before she was charged via postal charge requisition. She signed a new contract with Chelsea last summer that runs until 2026.
The trial continues.
