Latest / The Front / Sam Kerr accuses cops of racism

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Sam Kerr accuses cops of racism · The Front

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  Speaker 1: From the Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey.
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  Speaker 1: It's Thursday, February sixth Make Gaza great again. That's Donald
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  Speaker 1: Trump's latest big idea. The US President declares America will
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  Speaker 1: take over the Gaza Strip.
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  Speaker 2: And turn it into a booming Middle.
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  Speaker 1: East jobs hub, but he says the residents will need
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  Speaker 1: this is a Trump gamble that will define the region
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  Speaker 1: and his presidency. You can read that and all our
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  Speaker 1: experts analysis right now at the Australian dot com dot au.
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  Speaker 1: The ABC hired casual presenter Antoinette Latouf is part of
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  Speaker 1: its Diverse Talent identification program. The Federal Court has heard
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  Speaker 1: the broadcaster let Latouf go.
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  Speaker 2: After just three days after.
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  Speaker 1: Objecting to her social media posts about the Middle East.
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  Speaker 1: Australia's soccer sweetheart Sam Kerr is facing a jury in London.
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  Speaker 1: She's pleaded not guilty to intentionally causing racially aggravated harassment,
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  Speaker 1: alarm or distress to a police officer in January twenty
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  Speaker 1: twenty three. So what did ker say in that intoxicated
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  Speaker 1: moment and in hindsight.
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  Speaker 2: Before we begin.
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  Speaker 1: There's a lot of swearing in this episode.
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  Speaker 2: In Australia, Sam Kerr is a superstar and.
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  Speaker 3: Here is Carr. Two goals in two minutes and Sam
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  Speaker 3: Karr has now written her name into the pantheon of
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  Speaker 3: Australian football, the outright all time leading goalscorer goal number
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  Speaker 3: fifty one in love.
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  Speaker 1: She's not quite a nobody. She's the star striker at Chelsea.
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  Speaker 4: Sam ker with the two goals foot through the Chelsea
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  Speaker 4: Champions winning here by three goals to them.
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  Speaker 1: But she's not the kind of person who taxi drivers
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  Speaker 1: would necessarily recognize. And that's how just over two years ago,
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  Speaker 1: Kerve found herself sitting in twicken And Police station, having
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  Speaker 1: been dropped off by the driver of one of London's
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  Speaker 1: famous black cabs after a night out went wrong. In
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  Speaker 1: this bodycam footage played to the court, it's past three
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  Speaker 1: am and a weary cop PC Stephen Lovell is trying
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  Speaker 1: to talk to Kerr, who's fairly weary herself after a
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  Speaker 1: massive night out. She's sprawled on the kind of plastic
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  Speaker 1: bench that's made to be hosed down.
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  Speaker 5: Did you stay on the phone long enough to even
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  Speaker 5: speak someone.
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  Speaker 1: The cabby was furious because during the journey with her
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  Speaker 1: and her now fiance, Christy Mwis, someone vomited and a
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  Speaker 1: window got smashed.
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  Speaker 2: He refused to let.
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  Speaker 1: Her and her girlfriend out of the cab until they
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  Speaker 1: paid for the damage, and then he brought them to
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  Speaker 1: the police station. Kerr is telling the cops she was
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  Speaker 1: so panicked by the situation she tried to call emergency services,
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  Speaker 1: but she says they hung up on her.
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  Speaker 6: Okay, but they wouldn't do that. Though they wouldn't do that,
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  Speaker 6: you should have spoken to the honestly.
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  Speaker 7: You have stupid and white, okay.
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  Speaker 2: And this is the bit that's landed her in court.
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  Speaker 7: Up on stupid. I'm fucking over this ship.
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  Speaker 4: This is the world fucking problem.
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  Speaker 8: Wait on the call, Wait on the call, Wait on
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  Speaker 8: the fucking call.
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  Speaker 4: The taxi driver says, I wanted to get paid. They
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  Speaker 4: were refusing to pay the fare. I've rung the police
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  Speaker 4: and the police controller has said go to the nearest
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  Speaker 4: police station, and that's what I did.
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  Speaker 1: Jacqueline Magne is The Australian's europe correspondent. She's been in
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  Speaker 1: court where the jury has been told. Once k got
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  Speaker 1: to the police station, She initially refused to pay either
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  Speaker 1: the fair or a reparation to the cabby to fix
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  Speaker 1: the damage, but then she agreed. We don't have video
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  Speaker 1: footage of that because they believed that the case was
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  Speaker 1: resolved when sam Ko agreed to pay. She's agreed to
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  Speaker 1: pay nearly two thousand Australian dollars in damage. It was
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  Speaker 1: nine hundred British pounds to the taxi driver and once
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  Speaker 1: the payment was made, the charges against malicious damage to
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  Speaker 1: the taxi were dropped and then the only outstanding charge
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  Speaker 1: then was that relating to racial aggravation and harassment and
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  Speaker 1: public disorder.
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  Speaker 5: This interview is being tape recorded. Time is twenty two
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  Speaker 5: forty eight. On the thirty January twenty twenty three, I'MPC
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  Speaker 5: skin that attached to Kingston Police Station.
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  Speaker 1: Later that day at another London police station, Kerr was
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  Speaker 1: being formally interviewed.
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  Speaker 7: Samantha Kerr tenth the nineteen ninety three.
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  Speaker 6: We're in an interview from two at Kingston Police Station.
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  Speaker 1: You also confirmed Kerr declined the offer of legal assistance.
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  Speaker 2: It's a voluntary interview.
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  Speaker 6: So in your own words, what happened prior to your arrest?
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  Speaker 7: Well, I was in a taxi and.
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  Speaker 8: We I did vomit outside the window, and from that
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  Speaker 8: moment onwards, the taxi driver became very aggressive and very driving,
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  Speaker 8: very dangerous and had.
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  Speaker 7: Us both very very scared.
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  Speaker 2: Kerr said she never refused to pay the driver.
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  Speaker 5: So do you remember speaking to PC level at all,
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  Speaker 5: which turns up here's the officer.
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  Speaker 6: I think that's wrong. Short was he.
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  Speaker 7: Vote to three officers.
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  Speaker 8: And honestly like didn't feel very helped. And that think
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  Speaker 8: that's what ignited the fear, is because we were both
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  Speaker 8: very scared, very upset, and we didn't feel like we
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  Speaker 8: I guess we're believed.
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  Speaker 1: Kerr said she felt the officers were pressuring her to
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  Speaker 1: pay the Cabby I called to her that while prosecutors
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  Speaker 1: initially decided there was insufficient evidence to charge ker the
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  Speaker 1: Metropolitan Police appealed that decision. In a statement taken ten
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  Speaker 1: months after the incident, PC Stephen Lovell said Kerr had
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  Speaker 1: made him feel humiliated and belittled, especially when she pulled
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  Speaker 1: out her phone to show him her bank balance, something
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  Speaker 1: curse Side says was an attempt to show she could
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  Speaker 1: afford to pay a fine if required. Under questioning from
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  Speaker 1: a barrister, the cop denied he was pursuing her because
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  Speaker 1: she was a well known soccer player. He agreed that
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  Speaker 1: at one point during the early morning exchange, he told
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  Speaker 1: her calm yourself, young missy.
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  Speaker 6: So do you remember saying what's the effect of quote?
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  Speaker 6: You guys are fucking stupid and whites? Honestly, you guys
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  Speaker 6: are stupid than whites. I'm looking in the eyes, I'm
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  Speaker 6: looking you in the eyes. You guys are fucking stupid.
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  Speaker 7: I definitely did not recall sing that.
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  Speaker 6: Would you perceive these comments as racist?
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  Speaker 7: No, because I wasn't. I don't recall saying that, so no.
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  Speaker 1: PC Skinner plays the footage for Kerr in which she
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  Speaker 1: and Mwers are increasingly agitated, especially that girl at Clapham.
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  Speaker 1: Kerr is talking about a case that's haunted.
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  Speaker 4: Londoner's well, Sarah Everard case is so shocking. So it
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  Speaker 4: became this emblematic issue about the way that the police
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  Speaker 4: regard women's issues and the safety of women, and how
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  Speaker 4: they approach women and treat women.
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  Speaker 1: In early twenty twenty one, in the thick of London's
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  Speaker 1: COVID lockdowns, thirty three year old Sarah Everard said goodbye
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  Speaker 1: to her friends in Clapham Common and set off on
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  Speaker 1: foot towards her home in Brixton Hill. Not too long
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  Speaker 1: into her forty five minute walk, Sarah was stopped by
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  Speaker 1: an off duty police officer, Wayne Cousins, who said she'd
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  Speaker 1: broken London's COVID lockdown rules. Cousins handcuffed Sarah and ushered
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  Speaker 1: her into his unmarked car. She never made it home.
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  Speaker 9: Wayne Cousins appeared at the Old Bailey accused of the
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  Speaker 9: kidnap and murder of Sarah Everard. The thirty three year
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  Speaker 9: old's body was found in Woodland in Kent last week.
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  Speaker 2: Sarah Everard's murder prompted.
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  Speaker 1: Outrage from women living in London who said they could
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  Speaker 1: no longer trust them met police to keep them safe,
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  Speaker 1: and Sam Kerr invoked the case when trying to explain
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  Speaker 1: why she was so panicked by a cabby who locked
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  Speaker 1: the doors and drove her to a police station after
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  Speaker 1: a dispute about his soiled cab.
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  Speaker 4: I think those comments reflect perhaps Sam Kerr's inexperience it
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  Speaker 4: being in a London black cab, because when you get
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  Speaker 4: in a London black cab, it automatically locks until you've
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  Speaker 4: paid the fare to get out. So that's pretty standard,
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  Speaker 4: but she may not have been familiar with that. But
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  Speaker 4: in invoking Sarah Everard, she is reflecting, I think a
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  Speaker 4: sense of unease at night in London, that it's a big, dark,
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  Speaker 4: dirty place, and they clearly felt alarmed at the situation
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  Speaker 4: that they didn't have control over what was happening. They
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  Speaker 4: felt that they didn't know where they were going, and
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  Speaker 4: they felt the driver was acting erratically and dangerously and
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  Speaker 4: that they say they feared for their lives. How much
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  Speaker 4: impact that has on the jury has yet to be seen.
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  Speaker 1: Coming up how Sam Kerr says she wishes she'd handled
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  Speaker 1: the situation. You can followed this case live plus all
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  Speaker 1: the reporting from my correspondence around the world at the
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  Speaker 1: Australian dot com dot au. We'll be back after this break.
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  Speaker 1: In a police interview, when Sam Kerr is replayed the
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  Speaker 1: video of herself calling the cops fucking stupid and white,
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  Speaker 1: she says.
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  Speaker 8: This, but yeah, I was obviously intoxicated and I like
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  Speaker 8: shouldn't have been so like front footed that I was
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  Speaker 8: very very threatened with how I felt, and like I
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  Speaker 8: am very honest person and I can honestly say I
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  Speaker 8: didn't feel protected in that moment as a female, and like,
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  Speaker 8: I'm obviously here voluntary because I want to sort this out,
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  Speaker 8: but I just think like in that moment, I felt
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  Speaker 8: very very very threatened for one how I was being treated,
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  Speaker 8: and to like my life in that cub.
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  Speaker 2: In court, ker told the jury she'd been terrified for
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  Speaker 2: her life in that taxi.
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  Speaker 1: She said she began to feel sick during the drive
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  Speaker 1: and put her head out the window to vomit, but
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  Speaker 1: then the driver rolled up the window and began to
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  Speaker 1: drive dangerously. Ker said the pair were unable to open
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  Speaker 1: the windows or doors, and that Newess kicked out the
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  Speaker 1: back window with her boot. Kerr, who grew up in
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  Speaker 1: Western Australia, also told the jury she had thought that
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  Speaker 1: night about a series of murders of women in Perth.
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  Speaker 1: Kerr said there was a serial killer that was thought
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  Speaker 1: to have been a taxi driver. Everyone was talking about
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  Speaker 1: not getting in a taxi. Kerr said she had herself
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  Speaker 1: been a victim of racism throughout her life, saying she
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  Speaker 1: was often followed by security guards in shopping malls and
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  Speaker 1: had been assumed to be a troublemaker by teachers as
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  Speaker 1: a kid. She said she identified as white Anglo Indian.
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  Speaker 1: Ker told the jury she felt PC Lovell had no
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  Speaker 1: idea about the power and privilege he had. She said
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  Speaker 1: she felt the police were treating me differently and not
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  Speaker 1: believing me. I believe they were treating me differently because
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  Speaker 1: of the color of my skin. Here's some more of
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  Speaker 1: that police interview played to the jury.
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  Speaker 6: These words could be perceived as racist.
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  Speaker 8: I'm aware that anything can be perceived as racist.
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  Speaker 7: For sure. I was very.
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  Speaker 8: Emotional and very I didn't feel heard and I didn't
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  Speaker 8: feel protected in the police station. Also, the fact that
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  Speaker 8: we only spoke to three males the whole time, even
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  Speaker 8: though we had just come from being with a dangerous male,
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  Speaker 8: was very, I guess, confronting.
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  Speaker 1: So the case is being heard in front of the
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  Speaker 1: jury in Kingston Crown Court. The charge racially aggravated harassment
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  Speaker 1: carries a possible maximum penalty of two years imprisonment. More
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  Speaker 1: likely is a fine. A conviction could also endanger her career.
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  Speaker 1: She's captain of the Matildas, although out with a long
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  Speaker 1: term injury. Kurz pleaded not guilty in this matter, and
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  Speaker 1: in her police interview apologized for the whole event.
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  Speaker 8: I wish I had just had of obviously just gone home,
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  Speaker 8: because when you're in a threatening place and you feel
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  Speaker 8: like that's my girlfriend of course too, so I felt
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  Speaker 8: very angry at how she was treated too, So I
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  Speaker 8: wish I'd just had a walked away and that in
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  Speaker 8: the morning, really like I am now, it's always it,
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  Speaker 8: the kindsight, it's a beautiful thing.
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: Jacqueline Magnet is The Australian's europe correspondent. The trial continues
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  Speaker 1: in London's Kingston Crown Court. You can follow all our
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: reporting at the Australian dot com dot au.