The case raises a number of issues.  The first concerns the question of false arrest and a person’s right to escape from a false arrest that could even be considered a kidnapping.

Sam Kerr had been out with her fiancée to a few pubs and cocktail bars. After she felt ill, she called a cab and asked to be driven home. She was then sick out of the window of the cab. This led to the taxi driver requiring her to pay a fee even though the vomit was on the outside of the car. When Miss Kerr refused to pay, the taxi driver called the police who remarkably advised the driver to drive the two women to the police station.

It was clearly bad advice from the police. A taxi driver cannot simply drive his passengers to any place without their consent. In some limited circumstances, a member of the public can carry out a ‘citizen’s arrest’ in which case the best advice is to detain a person until a police officer arrives. In this case the taxi driver did not even purport to carry out an arrest. He had no right to take his passengers to the police station.

Even though it sounds counter intuitive, the passengers were justified in breaking a taxi window to try to escape. As such, there was no charge of criminal damage.

The police arrived and apparently took the side of the taxi driver. The passengers tried to explain their behaviour. They mentioned the case of Sarah Everard who had been wrongly arrested by PC Wayne Cousins and then murdered. They explained to the police officer that they had called the police themselves and tried to explain what had happened, but the operator had hung up on them. The officer told them that this would not have happened. In the argument it is accepted that Sam Kerr swore at the officer and said that he was “stupid and white”.

Sam Kerr was charged with a racially aggravated offence. Broadly this means that at the time of committing the basic offence the person demonstrates towards the victim hostility based on the victim’s membership or presumed membership of a racial group – in this case the white race.

There may be a perception that racism in the UK is directed towards Asian, Black and other ethnically diverse people. Some people would be surprised that white people can be the victims of such an offence.  A large number of cases are brought where the victim is white, however.  These cases are often where the victim is a white police officer.

The underlying offence in Sam Kerr’s case involves using threatening, abusive or insulting words with the intent to cause a person harassment, alarm or distress. In this case the words used were accepted.  She argued that the officer had been treating her in a patronising fashion and not understanding her position as a woman and a person of colour. She argued that the words whilst regrettable were not so insulting that a police officer would be caused any real distress by them.

There are cases that have been heard before where the High Court has considered that a trained and experienced police officer will often not be caused genuine distress by words or phrases with which he will, by dint of repetition, “be wearily familiar”.

In the event, although Sam Kerr was acquitted, the Judge made comments about her having brought the case on herself.

The lessons of the case are that when one is speaking to the police it is essential to mind your exact words. If you are a taxi driver, the best advice is to call the police and wait for them to arrive rather than taking your passengers to the police station.

All people should be careful not to use racist or offensive words in all circumstances not just for social and political reasons, but also to avoid having brushes with the law.