Sam Kerr said the murder of Sarah Everard was running through her mind and that she was “terrified” for her life during a row with a taxi driver, a court has heard.
Kerr, the Chelsea and Australia striker, is accused of intentionally causing “racially aggravated harassment, alarm or distress to a police officer”, PC Stephen Lovell, in January 2023. She denies the charge.
The alleged incident took place after Kerr and her fiancée, United States international Kristie Mewis, got into a drunken row with a taxi driver.
Kerr told the court how she and Mewis had hailed a black cab in Oxford Street, London, in the early hours of January 30 after attending a friend’s birthday party.
She explained that, early on into the journey, she had started to feel sick so had put the window down to rest her head. Kerr said she was then “spit-vomiting” outside the window.
It was at this moment, Kerr told the court, that the driver’s behaviour started to change. Kerr said he put the window up and “started screaming and driving erratically”.
She told jurors how the driver was “speeding up and slowing down” as well as “swerving around corners”.
Kerr: ‘I deemed him to be dangerous’
Kerr said that Mewis repeatedly asked the driver to stop but he refused, which prompted her fiancée to become “very distressed and emotional”.
Asked how she felt at that moment, Kerr said: “I hate speed at the best of times so I was terrified for my life, I didn’t have a seatbelt on so I was getting thrown around the back of the cab.”
Asked why she feared for her life, Kerr replied: “The dangerous driving for one but just being someone else’s car, he had the power over us, we were not in control at all. I deemed him to be dangerous.”
The driver himself called emergency services to complain that a woman inside his taxi was trying to smash the rear window. Kerr confirmed that Mewis had smashed the window with her boot and that she felt “relieved” as she saw it as “a way out.”
An operator advised the driver to pull up outside Twickenham police station and seek the help of officers there. It was there where Kerr later called PC Stepehen Lovell “f------ stupid and white”.
In body-worn camera footage previously played to the court, jurors heard Kerr talk to the police offers about how a woman in Clapham had been raped and killed after getting into a police officer’s car.
Kerr was asked about her references to a girl in Clapham and whether she was referring to Sarah Everard, who was kidnapped, raped and killed by Met Police officer Wayne Couzens in 2021. Kerr confirmed she was.
When asked why she mentioned this case to officers more than once, Kerr said: “Because it was probably in my mind from watching the news in the last year and also when I was in that situation those were the types of things that were running through my head.”
Never used black cabs due to safety concerns
Kerr also said she was scared at “being in the control of a stranger”. Kerr said she did not take “white cabs” in Australia, the equivalent of a black cab in the UK, and would instead use Uber or get lifts from friends. She explained that this was because of concerns over safety.
“I lived in a state where for 30 years there was a serial killer roaming that was thought to have been a taxi driver. Everyone was talking about not getting in taxis,” Kerr said.
Kerr was asked about the name of that case, she replied: “The Claremont killer.” It was then explained to the court that the convicted killer turned out not to be a taxi driver. Kerr was asked when that became clear. “I think the case was only solved about two or three years ago,” Kerr said.
In 2020, Bradley Robert Edwards was convicted of killing two women in separate abductions in the 1990s. Prosecutors at the time said Edwards lured the women into his work car, which looked like a taxi.
Kerr said she prefers using Uber than black cabs in London due to concerns over safety.
Asked why this is the case, Kerr said: “Because I live alone in a foreign country and Uber has a system where you can share your ride with people and I just feel like it’s much safer for young girls than getting in a car alone at night.
“I will share my journey often if I’m out past a certain time or leaving a certain area or it’s late at night.”
Kerr said her concerns over safety in London got worse during the Covid-19 pandemic: “It was a tough time for everyone, we were all secluded, multiple things going on in the world that we were all glued to the news watch.
“I think I have concerns everywhere as a female, I think that’s just in our nature.
“When someone tells you to make sure you get home safe, or not coming home late at night, those things play on your mind.”
Encountered racism from early age
The court also heard how Kerr, who identifies as white Anglo-Indian, experienced racism from an early age.
Kerr was asked about her experiences growing up in Australia with an Indian father and Australian mother. She explained how she had been nine or 10 years old when she first experienced racism and that she and her brother were targeted because they had their dad’s skin tone, while her sister had her mum’s.
Kerr said she first felt “confused” and “bad”. Kerr explained: “I think it turned from confusion from being able to understand why and turned into more disappointment, sadness.
“At school I experienced being in situations where teachers had instigated that I was the troublemaker or the starter of trouble when we were in a large setting.”
Asked whether she was a troublemaker, Kerr replied: “Definitely not.”
The trial continues.
