Sam Kerr's partner takes the stand in harassment trial

Sam Kerr's fiancé has given evidence in support of her partner during a harassment trial in London, as the "deeply offensive" insult Kerr threw at a taxi driver was revealed. 

The Matildas striker has been accused of calling UK police officer Stephen Lovell “stupid and white” as he attempted to defuse a dispute over a taxi fare in southwest London on January 30th 2023.

The all-time leading Australian international scorer has pleaded not guilty to the racially aggravated harassment of a police officer.

It has been alleged that the incident began when Kerr and Mewis had been out drinking when they were picked up by a taxi who refused to take them home, instead driving them to Twickenham Police Station after one of them was sick. 

The taxi driver alleged that the women refused to pay a clean up cost and smashed the vehicle's rear window, as Kerr previously stated that the couple thought they were being kidnapped. 

Speaking from the witness stand on Thursday, Mewis, who is expecting a baby with Kerr, broke down in tears as she recalled, “It was like nothing I’ve experienced. I’ve never driven a car that fast before. I immediately felt fear for my life.

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“I felt out of control and like someone else had control over me and that was obviously very scary... I didn’t know if it was a kidnapping or if we were going to crash."

“All of the horrible things you think about in your head; I didn’t know if that was going to happen.”

During cross-examination, prosecutors asked Mewis if she knew the taxi driver had claimed he was taking the pair to Twickenham Police Station after phoning emergency services about them.

She responded “no” and added: “I don’t know why you would drive that recklessly if you were taking us to a police station ... why was he driving crazy? I don’t understand that part.”

During the fourth day of the trial, Kerr was asked by prosecutor William Emlyn Jones if she was “someone who uses a lot of bad language or swears a lot?”

Kerr said “no” but was then asked if she remembered referring to the taxi driver as a “dodgy c***”.

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“That’s a deeply abusive term, isn’t it?” the prosecutor said, to which Kerr responded, “ Yes, you could say so.”

Kerr previously said the pair were “trapped” in the back of the taxi and that they had tried to open the doors and windows multiple times but they remained locked.

She also claimed “Everything was going through my mind about being in a car with a stranger I deemed to be dangerous. There was no reasoning with him. It was his way or nothing.”

Kerr's defence counsel then asked Mewis about how they were treated when they arrived at the police station, as she recalled “PC Lovell was immediately dismissive. He wasn’t believing what we were saying."

“We were saying we had been taken against our will, we couldn’t get out and (the driver) was driving like crazy ... he was dismissive in a way in which he didn’t want it to be true."

“In my opinion, (the police) were trying to change the story and make it into something it wasn’t."

“It felt a little bit like gaslighting ... the story (they) repeated back was different or they were manipulating it back onto us.”

The West Ham midfielder also said Kerr was “speaking her truth” when she called a police officer “stupid and white”, to which she clarified, “I think that in her moment she was speaking her truth in how she was feeling. Subconsciously she felt that she was being treated differently. I’ve seen Sam be treated differently.”

Asked if she noticed a difference between the way police treated her and Kerr, Mewis said: “Yes. PC Lovell was more snide and shorter with Sam. He didn’t believe what she was saying and (was) dismissive with her.”

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