Sam Kerr video: Court told Matildas star and partner feared kidnap before calling police ‘f...king white and stupid’

A night of celebration ended in Sam Kerr crawling out of the broken back window of a taxi, then being arrested for racially aggravated abuse of a London police officer, causing “harassment, alarm or distress,” a UK court has been told.

The developments surrounding the Matildas captain came as the Australian women’s football team’s coach Tom Sermanni said her position as skipper had become an “interesting question” since video footage was played to a London court, showing Kerr telling officers she and partner Kristie Mewis feared they were being kidnapped after a taxi driver refused to let them out of his cab following a row over compensation for vomit in the back of his vehicle.

Kerr was recorded twice calling police constable Stephen Lovell “f...ing stupid and white,” and insisting on going to court rather than pay for the window, leading to her being arrested.

The incident, which took place in in the early hours of January 30, 2023, came after Kerr had been out with US international Mewis celebrating a hat-trick scored by Kerr in a Chelsea victory

Both were described by police witnesses as “inebriated, emotional” and in a “distressed state”.

Grace Forbes, counsel for the Matildas skipper, told Kingston Crown Court there was no intention to “cause harassment, alarm or distress to PC Lovell”, and even if that charge was made, it was not racially aggravated.

“Samantha Kerr did not feel hostile to this officer because he is white, the words, however poorly expressed, were a comment on positions of power, privilege, and how things might colour perception,” she said.

The maximum penalty under UK law is 26 weeks in jail.

Kerr, who has pleaded not guilty, sat in the dock wearing all black as KC Bill Emlyn Hughes laid out the prosecution case which included a video lasting about 30 minutes made up of body-worn-camera recordings from one of PC Lovell’s colleagues.

During it, Kerr and Mewis are seen arguing with PC Lovell and his colleagues, at times becoming abusive and also crying as they explain they thought the driver was kidnapping them and feared they would be raped, which is why they were trying to break the window to escape.

“I hate to break it to you, but when a male is driving a f...ing car, for us, for two women, it’s f...ed, it’s f...ing scary,” Kerr says.

On several occasions they reference the rape and murder of Sarah Everard, 33, who had been abducted in London by then-serving police officer Wayne Couzens in 2021.

“This taxi driver held me and her hostage for about 15 minutes,” adds Kerr, now 31.

“I was like, ‘Please, let us out and I will pay whatever you want’.

“We were begging to get out of there. We were trying to escape — we were trapped.

“You have to understand the emergency that both of us felt. What do you expect us to do as women in that situation?”

In the video PC Lovell says that while he understands their fears, they were hypothetical and “did not happen” while the damage to the taxi “did happen”.

He offers them two options: pay the fare, the cleaning fee and for the window damage, which totalled just under $A2000; or be arrested, charged with criminal damage, and state their case in court.

“I’ll take option two,” says Kerr, who a few moments earlier had said: “I’m not paying some dodgy c...’s window. I will sit here until four in the morning and get the Chelsea lawyers on this. I am not backing down.”

She then calls Lovell “f...ing stupid and white”.

Kerr is then placed under arrest for criminal damage and racially aggravated public order.

Kerr and Mewis subsequently paid for the damage and that element was dropped.

Meanwhile interim coach Sermanni, deflected questions about what the court case would mean for Kerr’s place in the Australian women’s team.

When asked about “standards” expected of a captain, and whether Kerr had breached them, he said “I don’t know the answer”.

“I hadn’t even thought of that scenario at this stage,” he said, referring more to the recovery from an ACL injury which sidelined her for all of the 2024 season.

“My main scenario, first and foremost, is to look at this squad for this tournament and focus on that.

“My main scenario is hopefully that she gets back to good health as quickly and as safely as possible.”

He remained admant her fitness was the only thing keeping her out of a 23-player Matildas squad for the upcoming SheBelieves Cup tournament in the USA.

“To be perfectly honest, I think obviously, with the court case on at the moment it would be a bit unwise of me to sort of comment on that and comment on the outcome, or whatever that outcome might be of that,” he said.

Kerr’s parents Roger and Roxanne and brother Levi have flown over from Perth and were in court.

Due to the media interest, they were surrounded by British and Australian reporters in the public gallery.

The trial, which is due to last four days, resumes on Tuesday with Kerr expected to give evidence.