PC Lovell first saw Ms Kerr as she crawled through a smashed taxi window outside the police station, Kingston Crown Court was told.

The women told officers the taxi driver had been “acting in a crazy way” by driving very fast, repeatedly stopping and speeding up again, locking them in the car, and refusing to let them go for about 15 minutes.

A “heated” discussion about the incident ensued at the station, during which Ms Kerr allegedly became “abusive and insulting” towards PC Lovell. She was captured on a body-worn camera calling him “stupid and white”.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) initially ruled that the evidence did not meet the threshold to charge Ms Kerr, but a second statement by PC Lovell made 10 months after his first led to the Met Police charging the striker.

Giving evidence earlier on Tuesday, PC Lovell denied he had made his later statement “purely to get a criminal charge over the line”.