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 said. “At the same time Sam has rights, natural justice rights, procedural rights that she has to work through and we will respect that.”
One of the best soccer players in Australian history, and the country’s all-time record goalscorer, she’s also the national team’s captain. Johnson said that the team would “establish the facts” before deciding on “next steps.”
“We are trying to get to the bottom of it at the moment. We have got our own questions that we’d like to know, we have got to find out what actually happened,” he said. “But we also want to say that there is a process that is under way in the United Kingdom and that process needs to run its course.
“I haven’t spoken to Sam other than a text message to check in on her wellbeing.”
Matildas coach Tony Gustavsson said that he was “surprised” by the allegations and had also learned of them on Tuesday. He could not say anything further, citing the case as being ongoing.
Chelsea have declined to comment.
