The worst week of Sam Kerr’s life is now over. But there are sure to be more ramifications to come.
On Tuesday, a jury found the Chelsea and Australia striker not guilty of racially aggravated harassment after she called Police Constable Stephen Lovell “f—— stupid and white”.
Kerr can now try to move on – but she also has to try to rebuild her career and reputation. To do that, a not guilty verdict was the only option.
A conviction would have been catastrophic. It would have put Chelsea and Football Australia in an extremely difficult position. It would almost certainly have resulted in Kerr being stripped of the Australia captaincy and possibly losing her Chelsea contract.
There are people who believe those things should still happen. Kerr was found not guilty in a court of law, but when it comes to the court of public opinion, the jury is split.
Before this trial, Kerr was Australia’s golden girl. She was arguably their most loved sporting athlete and was chosen as the country’s flag bearer at King Charles’ Coronation in 2023. To put into context how famous Kerr is in Australia, people there could not fathom how Lovell could claim to not have known who she was until he was told by a colleague.
The reaction to this trial has seen people divided into two camps. There is the side that has come out in full support of Kerr and will feel vindicated by this not guilty verdict. In their view, this case should never have come to trial, especially as the Crown Prosecution Service initially ruled the evidence did not meet the threshold for a criminal charge.
There is also the camp that believes Kerr has tainted her legacy. She may not be guilty of a criminal offence but she still acted badly and as a role model she is held to high standards. As the prosecution suggested in its closing argument, consider the reaction had Kerr used the words “stupid and black”.
Kerr admitted she called Lovell “f—— stupid and white” after she had gotten into a drunken row with a taxi driver, words that were caught on the PC’s body-worn camera. But she did deny:
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That she was using the police officer’s race as an insult
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That she had intended to cause him harassment, alarm or distress
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That she showed the police officer her bank balance to show off
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That she threw up in a taxi and refused to pay for the fare.
Kerr herself said she was embarrassed by how she acted on the night in question, that she regretted her choice of words and that her actions were out of character.
Australia’s golden girl, their sporting superstar and hero showed she was not perfect after all.
Kerr showed herself to be human. A human who can make a mistake, just like everybody else. The question now is whether she can repair her damaged reputation off the pitch and rediscover her best form on the pitch.
Poster girl to the dock
Two years ago, Kerr was preparing for one of the biggest moments of her career. She was the poster girl for the 2023 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand and was expected to be a star of the tournament.
But on the eve of Australia’s first game, the forward pulled up with a calf injury. She was forced to miss the first three games but remained part of the squad. Such was the media frenzy, a helicopter was spotted spying on a training session ahead of the first knockout game as they tried to ascertain whether Kerr was participating.
Kerr finally made her first appearance as an 80th-minute substitute in the 2-0 win over Denmark and came off the bench again in their quarter-final victory over France. She started the semi-final against England and scored a superb solo goal to bring Australia level, before they were eventually beaten 3-1.
While making it to the semi-final stage was deemed a successful achievement for Australia, it was not the tournament Kerr had hoped for.
She returned to Chelsea and was probably not fully fit after rushing back from injury at the World Cup. That said, there did not appear to be anything to worry about. She was still scoring goals and contributing to a Chelsea team that was top of the table.
It was January 2024 when everything started to unravel. Kerr ruptured her anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in a training session in Morocco. Ten days after Kerr had surgery on her knee, the forward was charged with alleged racially aggravated harassment of a police officer. News of Kerr’s charge did not break until March, when she entered a not guilty plea at Kingston Crown Court.
That was the first time Football Australia learnt of Kerr’s charge. They had been blindsided. Chelsea had also been unaware. The decision not to tell club or country was a mistake, which Kerr would probably admit herself.
The incident and the trial
The night that resulted in Kerr being charged with a criminal offence was in January 2023.
On Jan 29, Kerr had scored a hat-trick for Chelsea in their FA Cup victory over Liverpool. That night she went out for a meal with her partner, Kristie Mewis, before going on to a friend’s birthday party in central London.
In the early hours of Jan 30, Kerr and Mewis hailed a black cab. We will never know for certain what happened in that taxi journey, but from Kerr and Mewis’s accounts:
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The driver began driving erratically after Kerr had been sick out of the window
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He would not stop or let them get out
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Mewis had felt compelled to smash one of the windows because they feared they were being kidnapped.
We did not hear from the driver, which many found odd. We were told how he had called the police, claiming a woman had been sick in his car, was refusing to pay and was also trying to break one of his windows. We were told that the operator advised him to drive to the police station and seek assistance from officers there. We were also told Kerr had made an emergency phone call later in the journey.
Kerr was not on trial for what allegedly happened in the taxi but for what came after, for what she said to Lovell. Lovell’s initial witness statement made no mention of the words stupid and white having had an impact on him. It was only after he provided a second witness statement, 10 months after the first, that the CPS authorised police to charge Kerr. He denied changing his statement to get a criminal charge over the line.
As the trial progressed, it turned into a debate over power and privilege. Kerr’s main defence was that she did not use the word white as an insult but was instead demonstrating what she perceived to be Lovell’s privilege.
Kerr believed the police were treating her differently to Mewis because of the colour of her skin. One example Kerr gave was the fact Lovell arrested both her and Mewis for criminal damage despite it being the latter who had smashed the window. They were subsequently de-arrested when they agreed to pay for damages.
Kerr also accused Lovell of dismissing her and Mewis’s claims that they were held hostage in the taxi against their will. Kerr, who said she and Mewis had not known they were being driven to a police station, had told police that they feared a repeat of what happened to Sarah Everard, who was kidnapped, raped and killed by police officer Wayne Couzens in 2021.
Kerr also told the court how she had grown up in a state where there was a serial killer who was thought to have been a taxi driver. The “Claremont Killer” turned out not to be a taxi driver but that case was not solved until 2020.
Lovell said to Kerr: “Do you think a taxi driver who was going to rape and kill you would drive you to a police station?”
It was a poor choice of language and perhaps Lovell will reflect on that. In the defence’s closing argument, barrister Grace Forbes said: “Isn’t PC Lovell missing the point? Isn’t what they feared in the moment directly relevant to the window the police were trying to get them to pay for? Perhaps what is more relevant is the flippant tone PC Lovell used in reference to rape and killing. This exchange about rape and killing, the girl and Clapham, and their fear in the taxi, those things are directly relevant to what Ms Kerr said about privilege.”
The prosecution reminded us, whatever conclusions could be drawn from how he handled the situation, it was not his policing that was on trial.
Kerr has always had a swagger on the football pitch, but the witness stand stripped her of any bravado. She was exposed and under scrutiny in a way she had never been before.
She was vulnerable. Kerr’s voice was quiet, shy-like. On several occasions she had to be asked to speak up. “I’m really trying,” Kerr said at one point.
The forward managed to keep her emotions in check but Mewis, who is around six months pregnant, broke down on a couple of occasions while giving evidence.
The events on the night in question were obviously a traumatic experience for the couple. Going over all the details in a courtroom was no doubt just as difficult.
We heard several character witnesses from Kerr’s team-mates past and present as well as her former manager Emma Hayes. Ex-Chelsea goalkeeper Carly Telford, who is now the club’s commercial manager, described Kerr as an introverted extrovert. “On the pitch you see the skills, the back flips [but] away from the pitch, she’s quite quiet and shy.” Millie Bright and Erin Cuthbert said they would trust Kerr with their life while Hayes said she was “natural protector”.
The trial was no doubt excruciating in parts for Kerr but there were also lighter moments, including when she had to explain to the judge what “sliding into DMs” meant after she had told the court that was how she met Mewis.
There were also a small number of Chelsea fans who turned up throughout the trial to show support, with Kerr shaking their hands at the end of each day. Her mother, father and brother Levi were there for the duration.
This may have been the darkest week of Kerr’s career but it is clear she is a much-loved family member, footballer and team-mate.
What next?
Chelsea manager Sonia Bompastor has previously said Kerr could return around late February or March. There has been no suggestion that Kerr’s absence has been extended because of the timing of the trial, but her recovery has taken longer than perhaps Chelsea would have hoped.
Kerr has not played for 13 months and will need to build up match sharpness gradually.
Chelsea, who are unbeaten in all competitions this season, have coped well without her.
Kerr will be desperate to get back to making headlines on the football pitch, rather than off it. That is the best way for her to move on from this saga. But it will not be easy.
Her contract with Chelsea runs until 2026 so she has one full season to prove she deserves another deal. Yet the team is much changed from when she last played for them. As well as a new manager, Chelsea have brought in some huge names over the past 13 months, Mayra Ramirez, Lucy Bronze, Naomi Girma and Keira Walsh among them. Will she be as integral to the team as she was under Hayes when she returns?
The 2027 World Cup will also be on her mind. That could be her last major tournament with Australia. Right now there is no guarantee she will keep the captain’s armband or whether she will still be part of the squad for that tournament. Kerr’s defence barrister admitted she did not cover herself in glory on the night in question. Kerr is someone who has given football supporters so much joy in the past and there is no reason why she cannot do that again, even if she is not viewed in the same light she once was by all of those adoring fans.
For the past week Kerr’s fate has not been in her own hands. She at least now has some control back. That allows her to get back to doing what she does best on the football pitch. It is up to Kerr now what story she writes next.
