Katie Price has arrived at Lewes Crown Court in East Sussex shortly before 10am on Tuesday morning to give a second day of evidence in her ex-husband's child rape trial.
Kieran Hayler, 39, is accused of committing three rapes and a separate sex assault against a 13-year-old girl between June and October 2016, while he was married to Ms Price. He denies all charges.
First day of evidence from behind a screen
Giving her first day of evidence from behind a screen on Monday, Ms Price, 48, claimed she checked into the Priory to cope with the allegations. She said: “I was having a breakdown at that point from all the times he cheated on me. I had to go into the Priory. My notes will show I had to go in there to do with the child because I couldn’t get my head around it.”
She added: “I was used to him cheating on me with women, but with [the complainant] it was a different kettle of fish because she was a child. I didn’t know what to do. I was going through it myself. Knowing not only was my husband cheating on me with the nanny, now there’s a child involved.”
Messages with the alleged victim
The trial has heard how Ms Price began quizzing the alleged victim in May 2017, when she was aged 14, about rumours she had heard about Hayler’s alleged conduct. In messages, Ms Price told her: “I’ll make you a little star.”
Asked about them, she said: “Me and [the complainant] were messaging each other when she told me about Kieran. I remember showing the screenshots, saying to my friends, ‘Oh my God, look at this, what [the complainant] is saying’. Obviously I wanted to get information out of [the complainant] because it was serious.
“I could tell that she was afraid and I was like, ‘I won’t tell anyone, just tell me what’s gone on cos it’s quite concerning’. I know she was afraid of her dad knowing.”
Confrontation and gift claim
Ms Price said she later confronted Hayler. She said: “I can’t remember his response, but his response all the time was, ‘What are you going on about? No I haven’t’. Kieran being Kieran. He was all like, ‘No, what you on about?’.”
Ms Price claimed Hayler bought the girl a gift using her money. She said: “It was with my money because he didn’t have money so I was like, ‘Why are you using my card?’.”
Ms Price and Hayler were married from 2013 until 2021, but split in 2018. The TV star claimed Hayler repeatedly cheated on her, including with their nanny, Nikki Brown. She told the court she discovered messages with Ms Brown about the complainant after using his fingerprint to get into his phone.
Ms Price said: “All [the] women he would try and cheat on me with it was, ‘Oh, you’re my best friend, Kate’s this...’. He would always play the victim and that’s how he would get a hook on them.”
She added: “It was horrible at the time because I thought we were happily married, apart from him cheating, but that was all going on behind my back as well. We had therapy because he just kept lying all the time and me catching him out with other girls, young girls.
“He moved out because we had therapy, because the therapist said he is untreatable because he believes his own lies. They said he had a sex addiction. Kieran has a way of playing the victim and puts me down as if I’m the bad one.”
Cross-examination and earlier evidence
The former glamour model was questioned yesterday by prosecution barrister Ryan Richter, and is set to be cross-examined by Hayler’s barrister today. Last week, the jury heard Ms Price told a social worker in August 2018 Hayler had groomed his alleged victim from when she was aged 13.
The mother of the alleged victim told the court in August 2017 her daughter claimed Hayler had done things to her, saying “he’s done everything to me, Mummy”. The mum said she told Ms Price weeks later as she felt “a burden”. She told the court: “I felt that she had a right to know. [My daughter] wasn’t OK about it.”
The mum added: “I said to Katie, ‘I think Kieran has done something to [complainant]’. She was shocked and probably swore. She was quite angry... I didn’t feel she was particularly upset for [my daughter]. I felt like she was just angry and feeling vengeful towards Kieran.”
Asked whether she knew her daughter was going to contact police in October 2021, the woman said: “Not until she’d done that, she told me afterwards.”
