London: That Matildas star Sam Kerr could face a criminal conviction, significant financial penalty or even time in jail for allegedly saying something that so many Australians would find inoffensive if not humorous won’t come as a surprise to the many who’ve warned against the creep of illiberalism in Britain.

Kerr, who has pleaded not guilty to committing a “racially aggravated offence” towards a police officer by allegedly referring to them as “stupid” and “white” in a dispute after throwing up in a taxi and arguing over the fare, has fallen foul of such laws.

Sam Kerr on the pitch last year.Credit: Getty

Unless her legal team can have the case thrown out next month on a process argument, the case will go to trial. The police will allege a crime has been committed motivated by hostility. A jury will decide not only if a crime has been committed, but whether the actions of Kerr, who is of Indian heritage, were fuelled by a forbidden motive.

So-called hate incidents in the UK refer to episodes the victim, or anyone else, thinks is based on “someone’s prejudice towards them because of their race, religion, sexual orientation, disability or because they are transgender”. And they are taken increasingly seriously.

In January, a man was sentenced to 10 weeks’ imprisonment for shouting an antisemitic and racist slur in public, before making threats to a police officer.

Last year, a 39-year-old male repeat offender was convicted of racially aggravated intentional harassment after he pleaded guilty to verbally abusing a 17-year-old black, female restaurant worker after drinking heavily.

At times this has also boiled into overzeal, with police questioning members of the public for their opinions voiced online.

In March 2022, a man who sent a “grossly offensive” tweet about British pandemic hero Captain Sir Tom Moore, the day after his death, narrowly avoided a jail sentence. Joseph Kelly, of Glasgow, was arrested and later convicted, receiving a community order for his social media post which said “the only good Brit soldier is a deed one, burn auld fella buuuuurn”.

But politicians, activists, celebrities and senior police officers have all appeared united in their highlighting of apparent surges in convictions for so-called hate speech over the past decade amid a fierce reckoning with racism.