Australian soccer star Sam Kerr, 31, and fiancee Kristie Mewis, 33, have been brought to tears in a dramatic fourth day of the Matildas captain’s trial in London.

There were emotional scenes when it was Mewis’ turn to recount her experience of the night the couple claim they were taken “hostage” by a taxi driver.

West Ham midfielder Mewis accused police of “gaslighting” after the “very scary” incident in which she feared for her life.

Kerr’s partner, who is pregnant with their first child, broke down in tears as she said: “It was like nothing I’ve experienced.”

“I’ve never driven a car that fast before. I immediately felt fear for my life,” she said.

“I felt out of control and like someone else had control over me and that was obviously very scary … I didn’t know if it was a kidnapping or if we were going to crash.

“All of the horrible things you think about in your head; I didn’t know if that was going to happen.”

Kerr is on trial for causing racially aggravated harassment to policeman Stephen Lovell during an incident in south-west London early on January 30, 2023.

It is alleged that Kerr and Mewis had been out drinking when they were driven to Twickenham Police Station by a taxi driver. He complained that they refused to pay clean-up costs after one of them was sick and that one of them smashed his vehicle’s rear window.

Earlier on day four, Kerr denied using “whiteness as an insult” when she returned to the witness box for cross-examination.

Asked if she was saying Lovell was “stupid because he was white”, Kerr said: “No, that’s not what I meant”.

“I believed it was him using his power and privilege over me because he was accusing me of being something I’m not,” he said.

“I was trying to express that due to the power and privilege they had, they would never have to understand what we had just gone through and the fear we were having for our lives.”

In another moment, Kerr was seen wiping tears in the dock as Mewis gave emotional testimony about her humble character and said she would not want anyone else to be the mother of her child.

During cross-examination, prosecutors asked Mewis if she knew the taxi driver had claimed he was taking the pair to the police station after phoning emergency services about them.

She responded “no”.

“I don’t know why you would drive that recklessly if you were taking us to a police station … why was he driving crazy? I don’t understand that part,” she said.

When asked by Kerr’s defence counsel about how police treated the pair after the incident, Mewis said: “PC Lovell was immediately dismissive. He wasn’t believing what we were saying.

“We were saying we had been taken against our will, we couldn’t get out and [the driver] was driving like crazy … he was dismissive in a way in which he didn’t want it to be true.

“In my opinion, [the police] were trying to change the story and make it into something it wasn’t.

“It felt a little bit like gaslighting … the story [they] repeated back was different or they were manipulating it back onto us.”

Mewis also said Kerr was “speaking her truth” when she called a police officer “stupid and white”.

Asked about her partner’s allegedly “abusive and insulting” behaviour towards Lovell, Mewis said: “I think that in her moment she was speaking her truth in how she was feeling.

“Subconsciously she felt that she was being treated differently. I’ve seen Sam be treated differently.”

When asked by prosecutors to clarify what she meant by “her truth”, Mewis said: “I think that she has been treated differently and spoken to differently for her whole life and I think that she was feeling the same thing that she has felt before and the things that I have seen.”

The court heard on Thursday (AEDT) that Kerr had told police “this is a racial f–king thing” and accused police, particularly Lovell, of treating her “different because of what they perceived to be the colour of my skin”.

When Mewis was asked if she noticed a difference between the way police treated her and Kerr she said: “Yes. PC Lovell was more snide and shorter with Sam. He didn’t believe what she was saying and [was] dismissive with her.”

Asked about these comments, Kerr said: “I believed were treating me differently because of what they perceived to be the colour of my skin — particularly PC Lovell’s behaviour.

“The way he was accusing me of lying, and later arresting me for criminal damage even though Kristie said it was just her [who smashed the taxi’s window].

“At the time, I thought they were trying to put it on me.”

She added on Friday (AEDT): “[It was]the way he was responding to me, cutting me off, names he was calling me, being dismissive.”

Kerr also claimed her perception was shaped by how officers were treating her differently to her partner Mewis.

The trial continues.

-with AAP