Chelsea striker and Australia captain Sam Kerr has pleaded not guilty to racially aggravated harassment of a police officer, prosecutors said on Monday.
Kerr will face trial in February 2025 over an alleged incident in January 2023. Kerr was charged on January 21, 2023 “with a racially aggravated offense,” according to the Crown Prosecution Service.
“The charge relates to an incident involving a police officer who was responding to a complaint involving a taxi fare on 30 January 2023 in Twickenham,” a Metropolitan Police spokesperson said.
Kerr appeared in court via videolink, stating her name and plea.
“I understand that the defense is that she didn’t intend to cause alarm, harassment or distress to the officer, [her behaviour] did not amount to it and it was not racially aggravated,” Judge Judith Elaine Coello reportedly said to Kerr’s barrister in court.
Kerr is currently sidelined with an ACL injury that she suffered during Chelsea’s warm weather training camp in Morocco in January.
On Tuesday, Football Australia responded to the allegations, with chief executive James Johnson saying that the federation had learned of the allegations in the news and called them “very serious” and “unsettling.”
“There is no place for racism in our sport,” he…
