Sam Kerr pleaded not guilty to one charge of racially aggravated harassment last year, with the case going to trial in London this week. (AP: Kin Cheung)
Australian soccer star Sam Kerr has spent a week in a London court defending herself against a charge of racially harassing a police officer after she called him "stupid and white".
But the court hasn't just been examining her language toward Metropolitan Police Constable Stephen Lovell.
It's been interrogating the hours that led up to it, which include a chaotic taxi ride, a smashed car window, multiple calls to police and a tense, drunken and foul-mouthed episode with three policemen.
Let's look at what's alleged to have happened on the night Sam Kerr went to dinner and ended up being arrested in a London police station.
A night out goes wrong
The night started with a date.
Ms Kerr and her partner, Kristie Mewis, told the court that on January 29, 2023, they went to their favourite London restaurant, Amazonico, and shared a bottle of wine over a meal at about 7pm.
In court, Ms Kerr said they then joined a friend's birthday party at another restaurant, before moving on to a nightclub with the group.
The court heard from Ms Kerr that she'd had two cocktails in that time.
Sam Kerr is Australia's top goal-scorer and is captain of the women's national team. Â Â (AP Photo: Kin Cheung)
Around 15 minutes after arriving at the club, the pair said they'd had enough.
"It's fair to say isn't it, Ms Kerr, that you were drunk?" prosecutor William Emlyn Jones KC asked in court.
"Yes," Ms Kerr replied.
Ms Kerr told the court she tried to order three Ubers, but none were available.
She told the jury Ubers were her preferred form of transport because the rides could be tracked and she was wary of hailed cabs after growing up in Perth, where there were fears that a taxi driver was the Claremont serial killer.
After failing to secure an Uber, they said they hailed a London black cab on Oxford Street in Central London and asked to be taken to Ms Kerr's home.
A chaotic taxi ride
Ms Kerr described the start of the taxi ride as "completely fine".
But she told the jury she began to feel sick and opened the window to get some fresh air, resting her head on the windowsill.
She says she began to "spit vomit" outside of the cab and from that point on, the atmosphere changed.
She told the court that the driver put up the window while her head was still resting on it and began to drive erratically, swerving in and out of lanes and speeding up and slowing down dramatically.
Sam Kerr and Kristie Mewis hailed a London black cab on Oxford Street in the early hours of January 30th, 2023. (Reuters: Belinda Jiao)
Ms Kerr said the driver was "screaming" and that she and Ms Mewis attempted to ask him to pull over and let them out. They said they believed he was holding them "against our will".
"It was like nothing I've experienced, I've never driven in a car that fast before," Ms Mewis told the court.
Neither Sam Kerr nor Kristie Mewis had seatbelts on at the time.
"I was terrified for my life, I didn't have a seatbelt on … so I was getting thrown around the back of the cab," Ms Kerr told the court. "He could have taken us anywhere … and I knew we were in a black cab that couldn't be tracked so no one knew where we were at all."
Kristie Mewis sobbed in court as she recalled how scared she was in the back of the taxi. Â Â (AP Photo: Alberto Pezzali)
The trial heard that during the journey, the driver called police and Ms Kerr contacted emergency services.
The prosecutor told the court the driver called police after becoming concerned by the behaviour of his passengers.
The police operator advised him to drive to the nearest police station.
Ms Kerr and Ms Mewis denied knowing that the driver had called police, or being told by him that he was driving to a police station.
Prosecutor William Emlyn Jones KC cross-examined Ms Kerr about her version of events.
"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," Ms Kerr replied.
Mr Emlyn Jones said that it was likely that the driver had asked his passengers to pay for the fare home and a clean-up fee for the sick.
Ms Kerr denied that any conversation about that was had. She also rejected any suggestion that she had declined to pay the driver.
London's black cabs are an iconic symbol of the city. (Reuters: Maja Smiejkowska)
"You've been sick in his taxi," he said.
"Yes, outside [the window]," Ms Kerr replied.
"That's bad news for a taxi driver … they can't take another fare if there's vomit anywhere in the car."
"I believe he could have."
Ms Kerr accepted she was drunk enough to be sick, but rejected the alcohol impacted her perception of what was happening.
"Let's be clear about this — do you still believe that the taxi driver was kidnapping you?"' Mr Emlyn Jones asked.
"Yes," Ms Kerr told the court.
Taxi arrives at Twickenham Police Station
At around 2:20am on January 30, the taxi arrives at or near Twickenham police station, in south-west London.
Police Constable Stephen Lovell told the court he was in a marked police car nearby and first spotted broken glass on the road near the station.
He then told the court he spotted the taxi outside the station, which was beeping its horn.
He said he saw Ms Kerr climbing out of a broken window of the taxi but did not activate his body camera.
Sam Kerr called Constable Stephen Lovell "stupid and white" inside Twickenham police station in south-west London. (ABC News: Daniel Pannet)
Ms Mewis told the court that she had kicked out the window.
"I knew I had to do something dramatic to save us," she said.
"If I was in the same situation, I would do it again."
Ms Kerr described feeling "relief" when the glass shattered, saying it was because she "saw it as a way out".
In a video shown to the jury, Ms Kerr was seen cleaning the blood off her hands, which she had cut climbing out of the broken window.
The court was told that Constable Lovell reported that the hard plastic screen dividing the driver and passenger sections of the taxi had been damaged, describing it as looking like it had been kicked.
Neither Ms Kerr nor Ms Mewis could recall any damage to it.
"How did that get kicked through?" the prosecutor asked.
"I don't know," Ms Mewis replied.
 "Did you do that?"
"I don't know."
"Did Sam do that?"
"I don't know."
Inside the police station
What unfolded next was largely captured on 34 minutes of body camera vision from Constable Shane Scott, one of the police officers inside Twickenham station in the early hours of January 30, 2023.
He turned his camera on at 2:42am, around 20 minutes after the taxi carrying Sam Kerr and Kristie Mewis arrived at the police station.
For the next half hour, the body camera footage shows a protracted interaction between Ms Kerr, Ms Mewis and Constables Lovell, Lim and Scott.
Throughout the interaction, Ms Kerr repeatedly swears and shouts at the officers.
The pair and officers often speak over one another as the exchange continues.
In court, Constable Lovell agreed that at times, the exchange became "childish".
"You're, like, irrelevant," Ms Kerr told the officers in the body-worn footage.
"OK, and so are you," Constable Lovell responds.
The police officers repeatedly say the couple can go home if they pay the taxi driver for the broken window, the cab fare home and the cleaning fee for Ms Kerr's sick.
Ms Kerr and Ms Mewis repeatedly say they will pay for the taxi fare and any cleaning fee.
But Ms Kerr is adamant they will not cover the damage to the taxi.
"The stupid c*** wouldn't let us go. I'm not paying for the f***ing window," Ms Kerr says at one point in the police station.
The couple repeatedly plead with the officers to investigate the conduct of the taxi driver.
"[The taxi driver was] driving us around in f***ing circles. Do you have his f***ing route on file?" Kristie Mewis asks.
"Look at his route," Ms Kerr says.
"Do you have his route on file?" Ms Mewis queries.
"That's not a thing," one of the officers replies.
Sam Kerr gestures towards a policeman's body camera inside Twickenham police station on January 30, 2023. (Supplied)
Constable Lovell confirmed to the jury that he never spoke to the taxi driver directly.
His colleague, Constable Lim, spoke to the driver, who then relayed his version of events to Constable Lovell.
The claims made about the taxi driver's behaviour were never formally investigated by police and the driver did not give evidence at the trial this week.
Under cross-examination by Grace Forbes, Constable Lovell said he had made "an informed decision … based on what my colleague [PC Lim] had told me".
At one point in the body-cam video, Constable Lovell tells both Ms Kerr and Ms Mewis that what they told him didn't amount to a criminal offence.
"These two women are civilians … it's not for them to tell you what offence might have occurred," Ms Forbes said in court.
"They might not have known the terminology, but they were making allegations of criminal offences."
"Yes," Constable Lovell said.
"Serious criminal offences," she added.
"Yes," he said.
"And you also know as a police officer that if a person broke a window to escape a dangerous situation, that might amount to the defence of a criminal charge," she added.
"Yes," he said.
At one point in the body cam vision, Constable Scott can be heard asking, "Lovell … it is just them two [Ms Kerr and Ms Mewis] getting nicked or is it [the cab driver too?]
"He's not getting nicked," Constable Lovell replied.
In Sam Kerr's evidence, she stated that throughout her time in the station, she felt like the officers were "antagonising" her.
Her lawyer, Grace Forbes, asked her to expand on that.
"Firstly, [the police] not believing us, telling us things that I knew had happened, hadn't happened, even though they had no proof, making me feel like a liar, second guessing myself, calling me 'missy moo'. Many things."
In Constable Lovell's evidence, he described Ms Kerr's tone and demeanour as "quite abusive".
In the video, she could be heard referring to calling lawyers.
"I'm not paying for it. I will sit here until 4am and get the f***ing Chelsea lawyers on this," Ms Kerr said.
Sam Kerr was at times questioned by Judge Peter Lodder, middle, her lawyer Grace Forbes, right, and William Emlyn Jones KC, left of Ms Forbes. (Priscilla Coleman/MB Media)
In cross-examination, the prosecution argued that showed Ms Kerr had power in the situation.
The jury was shown another section of video from Constable Scott's body cam, which was recorded with no sound, of Ms Kerr showing her phone to Constable Lovell.
The prosecution alleges Ms Kerr was showing off her bank account to Constable Lovell.
"How did you feel about that?" the prosecutor asked.
"Like I was trying to be belittled," Constable Lovell replied.
Ms Kerr disputed this, arguing she was showing the police officer her call to emergency services.
Sam Kerr's emergency call questioned
In the police station, Ms Kerr is captured repeatedly telling officers that she called police from the taxi, but it is repeatedly dismissed by Constable Lovell.
"Did you stay on the phone long enough to even speak to someone, that's the thing?" Constable Lovell asked.
"They hung up on us!" Ms Kerr replied.
"OK, but they wouldn't do that, though."
Constable Lovell said he tried but was unable to find a record of the call that night.
But the defence presented a recording of the call for the court, which confirmed police operators terminated the call and attempted to call Ms Kerr back without success.
Sam Kerr gave evidence and was cross-examined for about 5 hours this week. (Priscilla Coleman/MB Media)
Police call records confirm that the driver had phoned police at 2:18am, saying he was outside Twickenham police station.
The court heard Sam Kerr activated her emergency call at 2:21am.
Ms Kerr claims they were around the corner from the station at the time of her call but didn't know they were near the building.
"Why is it that when the phone was answered, you didn't actually speak to them?" prosecutor William Emlyn Jones KC asked Ms Kerr.
"It was a very hectic situation. It was a very traumatic experience," Ms Kerr replied.
A transcript of the driver's call to police notes the operator as saying that he had spoken to police around 7 minutes earlier, at approximately 2:11am.
'F***ing stupid and white'
The body cam footage culminates in Sam Kerr calling the police officers "stupid and white" and her being arrested for racially aggravated harassment and criminal damage for the broken taxi window.
"You guys are f***ing stupid and white. Honestly, you guys are f***ing stupid and white," Ms Kerr is heard saying in the footage.
"OK," Constable Lovell replies.
"I'm looking you in the eyes," Ms Kerr said.
"Why are you bringing race into this?" Constable Shane Scott said.
Ms Kerr had referred to officers as "white" and "privileged" earlier in recorded exchange as well.
During the trial, Constable Shane Scott said in a statement he did not take offence to Ms Kerr's comments.
Sam Kerr told the court she used the words 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.
"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."
The court heard she identified herself as "white-Anglo-Indian" and recounted multiple times she felt she had been treated differently due to 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 a security guard or staff member."
Under cross-examination, prosecutor William Emlyn Jones KC drew attention to her comments that Constable Lovell couldn't understand what it was like for two women being trapped and scared in the back of a taxi.
"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 denied that she intended to hurt him with her comments in that moment.
Sam Kerr is Australia's top goal-scorer and is captain of the women's national team, the Matildas. (Getty Images)
The prosecution also focused on Ms Mewis's reaction in the moment Ms Kerr called Constable Lovell "stupid and white".
Mr Emlyn Jones put it to her that it looked like she had wanted the ground to open and "swallow" her up, something she rejected.
"How were you feeling at that point in the night?" Ms Forbes later asked her.
"I just felt like I had given up a little bit and I was obviously feeling like we were being treated poorly and I think Sam was being treated poorly and I can't imagine how Sam was feeling if I was feeling that for her," she said.
Kerr returns to police
The charge against Sam Kerr for criminal damage was ultimately withdrawn and she was allowed to leave the station, after paying 900 pounds ($1,796) to the taxi driver in a transaction facilitated by police.
Ms Kerr said she made the payment in part to protect Ms Mewis ahead of the 2023 Women's World Cup in Australia.
"Towards the end of the night, Kristie had spoken to me and relayed to me the importance of her not getting into trouble for this because she was trying to make the [United States's] World Cup team," Ms Kerr told the court.
At the time of the incident in London, Ms Mewis was living in New York and playing for a team there.
They both left the station in the early hours of the morning of January 30.
At 10:30pm, later that same day, Ms Kerr arrived at Kingston police station voluntarily to be interviewed about the incident and was not accompanied by a lawyer.
She told police she didn't recall calling the officers "f***ing stupid and white" but accepted she had when she viewed the body-cam footage.
In the voluntary interview, played to the court, Ms Kerr apologised to the officers for her behaviour.
"I wish I'd just had a walk away and dealt with it in the morning really, like I am now … hindsight's a beautiful thing," she told the officer.
Constable Lovell's multiple witness statements
Constable Lovell provided a witness statement on January 30 about the incident.
It made no mention of how Ms Kerr calling him "stupid and white" made him feel.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) later declined to charge Ms Kerr, stating the threshold of harassment, alarm or distress hadn't been met.
Police appealed that decision, and the CPS requested any further statements of evidence.
Metropolitan Police Constable Stephen Lovell said he felt "upset" after Sam Kerr called him "stupid and white". (Priscilla Coleman/MB Media)
On December 5, 2023, Constable Lovell submitted a second witness statement, detailing how he felt after being called "stupid and white", nearly 11 months after the alleged incident took place.
In that statement, he said being called "stupid and white" made him feel "shocked, upset and leaving me feel humiliated" adding, "they were too far and I took great offence to them".
Constable Lovell told the court the reference to his race made him feel "upset".
He denied in court making something up to get the charge across the line, but agreed he was "determined" to pursue her through the criminal courts.
Questions for the jury
Much of this trial has been dominated by what happened inside the black cab and the tense argument captured in 34 minutes of body camera footage.
So much so, the jury had a single question for the judge on the final day, seeking clarification on the degree of damage to the plastic barrier between the passenger and driver in the black cab.
But when the jury retires on Monday in London, the only questions they must consider are whether Sam Kerr intended to, and indeed did cause Constable Lovell harassment, alarm or distress by calling him "stupid and white".Â
They must also be sure that the use of her words was racially aggravated.
If found guilty, Sam Kerr could face up to two years' imprisonment and a fine of nearly $5,000.
She is still the captain of the Matildas, Australia's national women's soccer team, but they've not guaranteed the captaincy in the future.
She hasn't played for either Chelsea or Australia since early 2024, when she injured her knee.