Kerr testifies she felt 'trapped' in taxi before window smashed

Sam Kerr sat in the witness box at Kingston Crown Court on Wednesday and described a taxi ride that had left her convinced she was in danger. The Chelsea striker, captain of the Australian women's national football team, is on trial for racially abusing a white police officer. But her account of what happened that night—the early hours of January 20, 2023—centers not on the police station where the alleged abuse occurred, but on the journey there: a cab ride she says became a trap.

Kerr and her partner, West Ham midfielder Kristie Mewis, had been out drinking when the evening turned chaotic. One of them was sick in the taxi. One of them smashed the rear window. The driver, unhappy about cleanup costs and the damage, drove them to Twickenham Police Station. But Kerr's testimony suggests the ride itself was the crisis—not what came after.

She told the jury the driver began acting erratically after she put her head out the window when she felt ill. He rolled it up and started driving what she described as dangerously: accelerating hard, swerving between lanes, throwing them around in the back seat. For 15 to 20 minutes, she said, this continued. "I was terrified for my life," she testified. The doors and windows were locked. She and Mewis tried repeatedly to open them. Neither would budge. Mewis was crying, deeply distressed. Kerr found herself in what she called protective mode, acutely aware that a stranger controlled the vehicle, that no one knew where they were, that he could have taken them anywhere. "He had the power over us," she said. "We were not in control."

Eventually, Mewis kicked out the rear window with her boot. But the car was still moving when the glass broke. Only then could they escape. Bodyworn camera footage from the police officer who later arrested Kerr captured her telling him and another officer that she and Mewis had been "very scared" and "trying to escape" the taxi when they damaged it.

At the police station, Kerr is alleged to have become abusive toward officer Stephen Lovell, calling him "stupid and white." She admits making those comments but has pleaded not guilty to one count of racially aggravated harassment. Her defense argues the remarks were not racial abuse but commentary on power and privilege—a distinction that hinges on context and intent. She told the court she believed the officers had sided unfairly with the taxi driver and were treating her differently based on what they perceived to be her race. "I believed they were treating me differently based on what they perceived to be the colour of my skin," she said.

Kerr, born in Perth with Indian ancestry, also referenced two cases during her testimony: Sarah Everard, murdered by Metropolitan Police officer Wayne Couzens, and the Claremont serial killer in Australia, whom she noted was believed to be a taxi driver. These references, entered into the record, suggest she was drawing on a broader context of fear—fear rooted in real cases where women had been harmed by men in positions of power or control. Whether the jury will see her comments to the officer as emerging from that fear, or as racial abuse, remains to be determined. The trial continues.