Katie Price could face a police investigation after her ex-husband was cleared of sex allegations he claimed were part of a smear campaign against him by the reality star. Kieran Hayler, 39, wept and doubled over in the dock after he was found not guilty of three rapes and a sexual assault on a 13-year-old girl said to have occurred during his five-year marriage to Price.
He was also cleared of four alternative counts of sexual activity with a child. Afterwards he thanked the jury and said he was determined to rebuild his life after 'five years of absolute hell'.
Police consider next steps
Police said they were considering their 'next steps' following the trial at Lewes Crown Court. Asked if they were planning to launch an investigation into Price, a Sussex Police spokesman said: "Following the not guilty verdicts we will now take some time to consult the victim and witnesses in the case and our partners to determine the next steps."
Hayler, who married Price in the Bahamas in 2013, was accused of targeting the schoolgirl over four months in 2016. He denied the allegations, which he told the jury were part of a vendetta conducted by his ex-wife to ruin him after he had flings with three older women during their marriage, including their nanny.
Claims of coaching
The personal trainer accused Price of coaching the alleged victim into making fabricated claims they had a relationship. Hayler said he photographed messages he discovered Price had swapped with the girl for his own protection because his ex had made out he fancied the youngster. In one message Price promised the teen: "I will make you a little star."
The 48-year-old ex-glamour model, who gave evidence for three days during the trial, told the jury it was just a 'figure of speech' with 'no agenda or nothing behind it'. But Hayler said he thought it was 'weird', 'very pushy' and a 'very strange comment to make'. "I thought she was coaching her into something she shouldn't," he told the jury.
Defence and prosecution evidence
Hayler denied flirting with the teen, who is not part of either his or Price's extended families, let alone having a relationship with her, and said he was attracted to 'older women'. He said a newspaper article in which he called himself a 'sex addict' had been made up to cover Price's 'embarrassment' at his cheating and to make money. "It was just made-up publicity as with all of Kate's life," he told the court.
Hayler said the final trigger for him moving out was nothing to do with the teen but him coming down one morning and seeing the state of the marital home. "Drugs on the side, cocaine on the worktops, alcohol everywhere - the house was an actual state," he said. The couple divorced in 2018.
Giving evidence for the prosecution, Price told the jury her ex was a 'wrong 'un' and the teen had messaged her saying he had 'tried to kiss her', 'done stuff' and told her 'he loved her'. The star said she had been 'really shocked', suffered a breakdown and had to go into the Priory. She denied being 'angry and vengeful' towards Hayler, insisting they parted amicably despite his infidelity.
But Hayler's former partner Michelle Pentecost, who gave evidence on his behalf, told the court about 'numerous threats' they had received from Price during their seven-year relationship. The 44-year-old told the jury: "All the time she'll be throwing out threats, 'I'm going to make everyone think you're a paedo'."
Legal application to discharge jury
It can now be reported Hayler's lawyer tried to get the jury discharged after the first day of Price's evidence, accusing her of a 'premeditated attempt to bring down this trial'. In a legal application to the judge at which jurors were not present, defence barrister Arlette Piercy argued evidence Price had given resulted in an 'overwhelming tsunami of prejudice to us which we are simply unable to deal with'.
Of the star's evidence, some of which cannot be reported for legal reasons, the lawyer said Price had gone on a 'deliberate, malicious and in my submission, premeditated attempt to bring down this trial', adding the 'significance of it was written all over the jury's faces'. Prosecutor Ryan Richter suggested the trial could continue but conceded it was a case of a celebrity witness 'having lost control'.
Judge Mark van der Zwart allowed the case to go on but warned the jury what Price said was 'not correct and you must disregard it'. In his ruling the judge described Price as 'what barristers of a previous generation would have called a dangerous witness' with a personal agenda in proceedings and who was 'liable to say something prejudicial given half a chance'. "Discharging this jury was unlikely to prevent the same situation arising again at a re-trial," he said.
Price had not responded to a request for comment.
