A quick Google search will tell you a lot about Chelsea’s big-name striker Sam Kerr. Before the past couple of weeks, most of the online chatter was headlined on her sensational scoring prowess. A modern-day WSL megastar with celebrity status.
Kerr, who has not played in over a year following an ACL injury, is one of the most influential and in-demand players in world football.
Captain of Australia’s Matildas, she is the only Australian player to ever be named on the Ballon d’Or Feminin shortlist. She’s also the first female footballer to feature on the global cover of the game FIFA, appearing alongside Kylian Mbappe in 2023.
The 31-year-old has amassed more personal and team honours – including five WSL titles – than the majority of her female counterparts combined. But now a different aspect of Kerr’s life has gripped the headlines.
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Chelsea striker Sam Kerr has been cleared of racially aggravated harassment towards a police officer
Kerr was accused of racially aggravated harassment against a Metropolitan Police officer in January 2023 – a charge she has now been cleared of – but the trial itself captured global attention. It far transcended football.
Sky Sports investigates why the Kerr case, which started more than two years ago, has caused such a stir and what the lasting impact might be.
What actually happened?
Kerr was on trial at Kingston Crown Court charged with causing racially aggravated harassment after a row with a taxi driver in south-west London in January 2023.
Alongside her partner, West Ham midfielder Kristie Mewis, Kerr had been out drinking when they were driven to Twickenham Police Station by a taxi driver who complained that they had refused to pay clean-up costs after one of them was sick and that one of them had smashed the vehicle’s rear window.
Kerr and Mewis both recalled feeling like they were being held “hostage” by the driver.
Bodycam footage released in Sam Kerr trial
At the police station, Kerr is accused of being “abusive and insulting” towards Met officer PC Lovell, calling him “f****** stupid and white”. Kerr had accepted using the language during a heated exchange but always denied that it amounted to the charge.
Following a week-long trial, a jury returned a not guilty verdict after deliberating for just over four hours. The decision was unanimous.
On Tuesday evening Kerr released a statement saying: “While I apologise for expressing myself poorly on what was a traumatic evening, I have always maintained that I did not intend to insult or harm anyone”.
The trial that got everyone talking – why?
For Kerr, a saga that began over two years ago is finally over.
The case attracted media attention worldwide, in part because of the striker’s eminent standing within the game, but also due to the sensitive issues it raised, including themes of race, sexuality and power.
A sizeable press pack – including major broadcasters from her native Australia – waited outside court every day for Kerr’s arrival and departure. Reporting made multiple front pages.
Chelsea Women boss Sonia Bompastor has stated Sam Kerr will not face disciplinary action
Kerr’s mixed heritage – her father is Anglo-Indian and mother white – was central. The striker told the court during the trial that she was around nine or 10 years old when she first witnessed racism directed at members of her family, explaining how she felt “confused, then sad”.
Kerr cited examples from her childhood where she felt she had been treated differently because of the colour of her skin.
In November 2024, after her arrest but before the trial began, Kerr and Mewis announced on social media that they were expecting a baby in 2025. Both received messages of homophobic and sexist abuse in the comments, prompting many players and managers to publicly condemn abuse in sport.
At the heart of the case were also questions around perceived privilege and how the power dynamic at play affected behaviour on the night of the incident. Kerr said her claims against the taxi driver were outrightly dismissed, which led to feeling “ignored” and “powerless”.
A timeline of key dates is crucial to understanding why this trial evolved to become so divisive.
January 2023 – The incident
Kerr and her partner Mewis had been out drinking when they were driven to Twickenham Police Station in the early hours of January 30 2023, by a taxi driver following a dispute with him. At the station, Kerr is alleged to have become “abusive and insulting” towards PC Stephen Lovell, calling him “stupid and white”.
PC Lovell submits first statement.
December 5 2023 – PC Lovell submits second statement
PC Stephen Lovell submits a second statement after Crown Prosecution Service declines to charge Kerr, 11 months after his first statement which was made on the day of the incident. It is only in this second statement that he mentions being upset by being called “stupid and white”.
March 4 2024 – Kerr’s arraignment
Kerr appears in court accused of allegedly racially aggravated harassment of PC Lovell. She pleads not guilty and a trial is scheduled for February 2025. No further context was given.
Before trial
Before trial, an abuse of process application by the defence was refused. The judge heard defence submissions, but ruled that there was a case to answer and issues could be resolved at trial.
February 3 2025 – Trial begins
February 11 2025 – Verdict
Kerr found not guilty of causing racially aggravated harassment by unanimous decision.
The statement she released on social media after the verdict said: “Following today’s not guilty verdict, I can finally put this challenging period behind me. I am fully focused on getting back on to the pitch and look forward to an exciting year ahead for me and my family.”
Football Australia has said it “will reflect” with Kerr in a statement, but did not confirm whether she would continue as the captain of the women’s national team.
Judge Peter Lodder KC said after the verdict: “I take the view her own behaviour contributed significantly to the bringing of this allegation.
“I don’t go behind the jury’s verdict but that has a significant bearing on the question of costs.”
The Crown Prosecution Service’s function is not to decide whether a person is guilty of a criminal offence, but to make fair, independent and objective assessments about whether it is appropriate to present charges for a jury to consider. In this case, we decided that there was sufficient evidence and that it was in the public interest to proceed. ‘We respect the jury’s decision’.
Analysis: Power, privilege and identity at play
Diversity and inclusion reporter Miriam Walker-Khan:
You have probably seen the clip of Sam Kerr calling a police officer “stupid and white”. It went viral on social media during the trial. That clip is part of a 34-minute-long video that has not gone viral, which many people commenting on this case will not have seen. At the end of that video, Kerr says “Just believe women. For once.”
Like many court cases involving high-profile athletes do, Kerr’s trial has captured the attention of sports fans all over the world. But the verdict of the case highlights that racism and racial power is not symmetrical, and that this case was not black and white.
The themes of power and privilege were discussed every day during Kerr’s trial, with constant questions about who held the power and privilege on the night of 30 January 2023. There is no denying that Kerr, one of the highest-paid and most recognisable footballers in the women’s game has privilege. But how relevant was it at Twickenham Police Station that night?
Bodycam footage released in Sam Kerr trial
Australia’s Sports Minister Anika Wells, who publicly supported Kerr, said “the more we find out about the incident the more you can understand why they’ve [Kerr and Mewis] acted the way they have.” In the full 34-minute video of Kerr and Mewis’ exchange with PC Lovell and other police officers, the couple were trying to explain how unsafe they felt in that taxi. Kerr appeared distressed, upset and angry.
“We were both trapped for 20 minutes in a male’s car”, Kerr said. “You have to understand the emergency that both of us felt… both of us are very scared…. so listen to us.”
Later in the video, a police officer said to Kerr that if he was trapped in a car, the first thing he would do was call the police – which Mewis and Kerr claimed to have done. Kerr said “but you’re also a man, you don’t understand the female reaction”, to which the officer responded “it doesn’t matter if I was a female or a male.”
But to many followers of this trial, that’s exactly what mattered. For others, it was immaterial.
The jury on this case was told by prosecutor Bill Emlyn Jones that Kerr’s claims about what happened in the taxi did not make “one blind bit of difference to what this case is about.” Comments on social media posts about the case showed that many shared this view.
To many others, what happened in that taxi has everything to do with Kerr calling a police officer “stupid and white”. Just as Kerr’s identity as a woman of colour is relevant when she found herself in a situation where she feared for her life, then believed she was not being listened to by police and began trying to explain the concept of privilege.
Kerr received backing from Australia’s Sports Minister, as well as testament from Chelsea team-mates and former manager Emma Hayes during the trial
In March 2023, the Casey report, a review into the standards of behaviour and internal culture of the Metropolitan Police Service, found that the Met Police is guilty of institutional racism, misogyny and homophobia. It said “racism, misogyny, and homophobia” were “at the heart of the force.”
The report was commissioned by the Met after Wayne Couzens, one of its officers, raped and murdered Sarah Everard in March 2021 in Clapham, south west London – the same part of London Kerr had moved to when she signed for Chelsea in January 2020.
When the Casey report was released, The Met’s Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said the review was “very, very worrying” and said that “maybe” the Met has got “toxic individuals” of whom the force has “concerns about their predatory behaviour”. While fully accepting “the diagnosis” of the findings, Sir Mark did not use the term “institutionally racist” to describe the force.
Kerr references Sarah Everard’s rape and murder several times in the 34-minute-long video.
When you are woman of colour with a girlfriend, you do not have the privilege of divorcing the fact that the same police force which is there to protect you has – in its own findings – “racism, misogyny, and homophobia at the heart of [it].”
You cannot not have brown skin for an evening and you cannot forget about the recent murders of women in the same city you live in.
Kerr bringing up Sarah Everard multiple times when trying to explain how unsafe she felt that night indicates how aware she is of her identity and how it is linked to her safety.
What needs to be clear here is that there isn’t a suggestion that the officers who detained Kerr and Mewis in Twickenham acted in a racist, misogynistic or homophobic way towards them, but that this historical context contributed to how the pair were feeling on the night.
For Kerr, there’s other crucial context, too. During the trial, the Matildas captain told the court she had a fear of taxi drivers and usually used Ubers for safety, because there is a tool in the app that allows you to share your location and journey.
Kerr told the court how her and partner Mewis feared for their lives during the incident
Two girls who went to the same high school as Kerr were murdered by the Claremont serial killer in Perth in the late 90s. For years, a taxi driver was the suspect. In 2020, a former children’s athletics coach was found guilty of two of the murders. Author Sally Rugg, who went to the same school as Kerr, said on X “I cannot over-emphasise the impact these murders had for girls who went to my school. The fear was drilled into us.”
This fear does not come from nowhere. It comes from male violence towards women and girls, which last year was described by the National Police Chiefs’ Council as having reached “epidemic levels” and declared a “national emergency“.
Women don’t walk around at night with their keys laced through their fingers, or pretend to call someone, or cross the street if a man is walking behind them for fun. Saying ‘text when you’re home’ or ‘share your location’ are not just cute quirks girls that women say to each other at the end of an evening. These are learned behaviours and they come from a legitimate fear – because like Sarah Everard, or Bibaa Henry, or Nicole Smallman, or Sabina Nessa, or Harshita Brella, women have been murdered in the streets of our cities by strangers.
So when Kerr says “Just believe women. For once,” in the longer version of that video, after half an hour of describing how she and Mewis feared for her their lives, it is absolutely relevant to understand how unheard and unsafe she says she felt.
No one is saying Kerr’s language was right but the context and evidence that the jury heard in the trial – that perhaps football fans who loosely followed the case and only saw headlines about – was crucial to the jury’s verdict that Kerr calling PC Lovell stupid and white was not used as an insult.
Many football fans watching this case unfold have said Kerr should be punished – some have said the trial was a waste of time and resources. Others have asked for women, especially those clearly in distress to be believed, saying that some football fans seem more outraged about this story than claims of sexual assault or domestic violence by male football players.
No one is condoning Kerr’s behaviour – not even Kerr herself. In a statement she released after the trial’s verdict, she accepted that she expressed herself poorly.
And while football fans always have and always will spend time debating, arguing and disagreeing when it comes to matters on the pitch – in this trial, the verdict is unequivocal. Kerr was found not guilty in a court of law.
But the case, which will surely be remembered for years to come, highlights that the division of opinion is microcosmic of the divisions within society when it comes to matters of race and gender.
Sky Sports contacted the Metropolitan Police to ask what progress had been made following the Casey report findings in March 2023, it said:
“A New Met for London is the Commissioner’s two-year plan on how the Met will deliver more trust, less crime, and high standards to reform and deliver a better service to Londoners, including our Violence Against Women Action Plan which sets out our commitments to building trust and confidence and tackling perpetrators.
“We are currently delivering this plan and recently (Thursday, 23 January 2025) the Met moved out of special measures after making major improvements in many areas of service to London.
While the Metropolitan Police is not commenting on comments made during the trial, a Met spokesperson said:
“Our officers perform a challenging job and are often subjected to various forms of abuse as they discharge their duty. We will continue to support all officers involved in this incident.
“The matter was fully investigated with evidence presented to the Crown Prosecution Service who made the decision to charge. A jury has found Kerr not guilty and we respect their verdict.”
