Chelsea and Australian striker Sam Kerr pleaded not responsible in court docket on Monday to a cost of racial harassment.
Kerr is accused of utilizing “abusive, threatening or insulting phrases which brought on alarm or misery” to a police officer in Twickenham, London, in January.
She appeared at Kingston Crown Court docket by way of video hyperlink to substantiate her id and enter a not responsible plea. Kerr should attend a four-day trial in February 2025 by which two law enforcement officials will testify towards her.
The 30-year-old’s protection will probably be that she didn’t intend to hurt PC Lovell.
Decide Judith Elaine Coello advised Kerr’s lawyer: ‘I perceive the protection is that she didn’t intend to fret, harass or alarm the officer. [her behaviour] it was not tantamount and it was not racially aggravated.”
Kerr is at present recovering from a cruciate ligament harm suffered throughout Chelsea’s warm-weather coaching camp in Morocco in January, a couple of weeks previous to the incident in query. She is predicted to overlook the rest of the 2023/24 season and is unlikely to play once more underneath outgoing supervisor Emma Hayes.
In 128 appearances in all competitions for Chelsea, Kerr scored 99 objectives and received ten main honours, together with 4 consecutive Girls’s Tremendous League titles.
At worldwide degree, Kerr is Australia’s all-time prime scorer with 69 objectives in 128 matches. As a consequence of her harm, she should miss subsequent summer time’s Olympic Video games in Paris.