The partner of Chelsea striker Sam Kerr accused police of “gaslighting” after a “very scary” incident in which the pair claim they were taken “hostage” by a taxi driver.
West Ham midfielder Kristie Mewis, 33, gave evidence at Kingston Crown Court on Thursday where Kerr is on trial for causing racially aggravated harassment to policeman Stephen Lovell during an incident in south-west London in the early hours of January 30, 2023.
It is alleged that Kerr, 31, and her partner had been out drinking when they were driven to Twickenham Police Station by a taxi driver who complained that they had refused to pay clean-up costs after one of them was sick and that one of them smashed the vehicle’s rear window.
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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.”
Kerr previously 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.”
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.”
When asked by Kerr’s defence counsel about how police treated the pair after the incident, Mewis said: “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.”
Australia striker Sam Kerr arrives at Kingston Crown Court, south west London, where she is charged with alleged racially aggravated harassment of a police officer. (Photo by Getty Images)
The West Ham midfielder also said Kerr was “speaking her truth” when she called a police officer “stupid and white”.
Asked about her partner’s allegedly “abusive and insulting” behaviour towards Lovell, Mewis said: “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.”
When asked by prosecutors to clarify what she meant by “her truth”, Mewis said: “I think that she has been treated differently and spoken to differently for her whole life and I think that she was feeling the same thing that she has felt before and the things that I have seen.”
The court previously heard on Wednesday that Kerr had told police “this is a racial thing” and accused police, particularly Lovell, treated her “different because of what they perceived to be the colour of my skin”.
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.”
The trial continues.
© AAP