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