February 12 – After seven days of witnesses and questions, the jury in the Sam Kerr trial took four hours and 17 minutes to find the Chelsea and Australian striker, not guilty of aggravated harassment of a police officer.
Kerr, 31, found herself in Kingston Crown Court after calling Metropolitan Police officer, PC Lovell, “stupid and white” during her arrest.
Questioned during the trial, Kerr said she regretted the way she expressed herself but added: “I feel the message was still relevant.”
She denied using whiteness as an insult and claimed: “I believed it was him using his power and privilege over me because he was accusing me of being something I’m not.
“I was trying to express that due to the power and privilege they had, they would never have to understand what we had just gone through and the fear we were having for our lives.”
Grace Forbes, who represented Kerr, said the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) had violated its own guidance, adding that a “loophole” in the victims’ right of review scheme was used to justify prosecution proceedings a year after the alleged offence.
Kerr was arrested following a dispute with a taxi driver after a night out drinking with her girlfriend, USWNT star, Kristie Mewis. An incident occurred in a taxi that led the driver taking the pair to Twickenham police station where Kerr was arrested.
Summing up ahead of the verdict, Justice Peter Lodder directed the jury to focus on what occurred inside the police station. “Of the greatest relevance to you is what happened inside the police station. It is the events inside the police station that is the charge. Both parties rely on the events leading to that to set the context.”
Kerr gave a thumbs-up to her legal team before leaving the courtroom with her fiancée Kristie Mewis.
Contact the writer of this story, Nick Webster, at moc.l1739338207labto1739338207ofdlr1739338207owedi1739338207sni@o1739338207fni1739338207