Chelsea striker Sam Kerr ‘feared for her life’ during taxi journey, court hears | UK News

Chelsea striker Sam Kerr has stated she feared for her life after a taxi journey and felt ignored by Met Law enforcement officials coping with the state of affairs, a courtroom has heard.

The Australian soccer star is on trial charged with inflicting racially aggravated harassment to a police officer following the incident in southwest London within the early hours of 30 January 2023.

The officer concerned, PC Stephen Lovell, first noticed Kerr that evening as she crawled by way of a smashed taxi window outdoors Twickenham Police Station, Kingston Crown Court docket heard.

The taxi driver had pushed Kerr and her associate, West Ham midfielder Kristie Mewis, to the station and complained they’d refused to pay clean-up prices after one among them was sick and that they’d additionally smashed the car’s rear window.

However the girls informed officers he had been “appearing in a loopy approach” by driving very quick, repeatedly stopping and rushing up once more, locking them within the automobile, and refusing to allow them to go for about quarter-hour.

The courtroom heard a “heated” dialogue then ensued on the station and Kerr allegedly grew to become “abusive and insulting” in direction of PC Lovell, calling him “silly and white”.

Kerr has stated she accepts making the feedback however denies they quantity to racially aggravated harassment.

In a police interview the next day, Kerr, informed the officer in cost that “I should not have been so front-footed” however “in that second I used to be feeling very, very threatened due to one: how I used to be being handled, and two: for my life in that automobile”.

“I used to be in a taxi and I did vomit outdoors the window, and in that second onwards the taxi driver grew to become very aggressive and [was] driving very harmful, and had us each very, very scared,” she stated.

“I really… pressed the emergency factor on my telephone and spoke to somebody and he [the driver] wouldn’t return us, drop us off – we wished to pay no matter it was. He stated [to police] we weren’t going to pay however that’s not true in any respect.

“He wouldn’t drive us to our location and he was simply driving us round and round very, very dangerously. He actually was so harmful and so scary and he had us each very, very afraid.”

She additionally stated she had not felt they had been believed once they arrived on the police station and had been informed to “simply behave”.

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The footballer informed officers she had contacted emergency companies concerning the driver however PC Lovell stated there was no report of that, the courtroom heard.

Police didn’t request copies of the emergency service calls at the moment, and the taxi driver was by no means arrested or interviewed.

His final involvement with officers was to facilitate the ladies paying him for harm to his automobile.

Velocity cameras that will have captured his car weren’t checked, no ANPR data had been searched, nor was cell website information for his units.

Police requested if he had any recording machine in his car, and he informed them that he didn’t however the officers didn’t test the cab for such a tool.

The trial continues.