Katie Price‘s ex-husband has been found not guilty of raping a 13-year-old girl.
Kieran Hayler, 39, was accused of sexually assaulting and raping a 13-year-old schoolgirl in West Sussex in 2016.
The former stripper was married to the glamour model and TV personality from January 2013 until July 2021.
Hayler accused Price of ‘coaching’ the alleged victim after discovering messages in which his then-wife suggested he fancied the girl and promised to make her ‘a little star’.
Hayler told the court: ‘I am attracted to older women’, adding that all his significant relationships had been with older women.
He admitted having affairs with three other women during his marriage to Price, but claimed she had also been unfaithful.
The court heard that trust between the couple had broken down by mid-2013, with Hayler telling jurors that ‘trust had gone on both sides’.
Hayler said he discovered messages between his wife and the alleged victim in 2017 while searching Price’s phone for evidence that she was having an affair.
The former couple at the UK premiere for the film Fifty Shades Darker in London in 2017
Katie Price is pictured arriving at Lewes Crown Court, East Sussex, on October 14
Kieran Hayler, seen outside court on October 14, denies charges of rape and sexual assault
Judge Mark van der Zwart sent out of the jury, made up of six women and five men, to begin their deliberations on Tuesday afternoon.
In closing speeches on Monday, prosecutor Ryan Richter said: ‘You’ve seen the big personalities, the big egos in this case and you’ll judge it, you’ll cut through it.
‘You’ll decide whether those big voices drown out the voice of (the complainant) or whether that voice has made you sure on the counts of this indictment.’
Defence barrister Arlette Piercy said in her closing speech that Hayler has been consistent and clear throughout his defence, in what has been a ‘roller coaster ride for everybody in this court’.
She called for the jury to take care, be calm and rational, warning ’emotion is enemy of reason’.
The court previously heard that Price had messaged the teenager claiming she had heard Hayler and the girl had kissed and that he had ‘tried it on’ with her.
In another message, the former glamour model told the girl: ‘I will make you a little star.’
Hayler said he found the exchange suspicious and took photographs of the messages on his own phone.
Asked by his defence barrister Arlette Piercy why he had photographed them, he replied: ‘Because she made out that I fancied (the complainant).
‘I thought, ‘This is a bit weird.”
Giving evidence in the defence case on Friday, Hayler’s former partner Michelle Pentecost told the court Ms Price made ‘numerous threats’ – more than 60 – to both herself and Hayler during their seven-year relationship.
Asked about the kind of threats, she said they were made over the phone or on video calls, and included phrases like ‘I’m going to ruin you Kieran, I’m going to ruin Michelle’.
She added: ‘All the time she’ll be throwing out threats ‘I’m going to make everyone think you’re a paedo’.’
The 44-year-old said the effect of the threats were ‘horrendous’.
Ms Pentecost told the jury on Friday: ‘If things were OK in her life and there was no drama, we’d have a happy life.’
But she added that if Ms Price was not happy, ‘we would get the brunt of it’.
She referred to a ‘pornographic Christmas card’ which was sent to her mother’s address with explicit pictures of Hayler on it and signed ‘Happy Christmas from a friend or something like that,’ she said.
Asked if this was in connection with Ms Price, she replied: ‘I never had issues before that.’
On Friday, Hayler also said he believed Ms Price and the complainant came together for a meeting and the alleged victim was ‘acting’ in her police interview.
Hayler said in his evidence on Thursday he thought Price was ‘coaching’ the teenage girl after discovering messages she sent to her.
Katie Price is pictured arriving at Lewes Crown Court, East Sussex, on October 14
Hayler accessed her phone by using her fingerprint while she was ‘in bed hungover or on drugs,’ he told jurors on Friday.
The messages sent between Ms Price and the girl include the media personality saying she had heard Hayler and the girl kissed and he had ‘tried it on’ with her, adding: ‘I’m only asking as this is a serious allegation.’
The teenager replied that it was ‘just a flirt thing’ and ‘nothing happened’.
In the conversation, Ms Price went on to ask if Hayler ever said he liked or fancied her, to which the girl replied: ‘Yes but I took it as a joke.’
Mr Richter accused the defendant of only producing the messages now because ‘you’re desperate’.
Hayler replied: ‘Not desperate, I found them.’
The prosecutor said: ‘You never revealed them before because they don’t help you, actually.
‘They show (the complainant) admitting for the very first time sexual things happened between the two of you.’
But Hayler said the messages do help him, and that he never flirted with the girl.
Mr Richter also put to Hayler that seeing the allegation and the complainant ‘partly accepting’ this ‘must have been horrific for you’.
Hayler replied: ‘I just didn’t think anything of it.’
The former couple at the UK premiere for the film Fifty Shades Darker in London in 2017
Pressed on that he thought enough about it to take a picture of it, Hayler added: ‘Yeah, of course.’
The jury was shown a video recording of a police interview the woman gave in December 2021, where she described being raped by Mr Hayler.
Mr Richter asked him if he had thought very carefully about the recording, saying: ‘You’ve worked out your theory of what happened.’
Hayler replied: ‘It’s not a theory.’
He added: ‘I’d never had any contact with police.’
He then said ‘yes’ when asked: ‘This is a fabricated allegation made up by her, her mum and Katie Price?’
Mr Richter asked, ‘Do you think they came together in a meeting and drafted it out?’ to which Hayler said: ‘Yes, I do.’ Mr Richter asked him.
And when questioned whether he thought the woman was acting during her interview, Hayler said: ‘Yes. Or she was very nervous because she’s lying.’
Kieran Hayler, seen outside court on October 14, denies charges of rape and sexual assault
Hayler said the allegations started after he split from his ex-wife and after she checked out of the Priory following her conviction for rolling her car while under the influence of drink and drugs.
Mr Hayler said: ‘The timing is almost identical. Every time something was going bad for her, a bad news story or something to do with me, there would be a threat to do with me and this.’
He said despite being checked into the Priory after her conviction, Katie Price was ‘out and about’, adding: ‘This was three years after our relationship ended.
‘She had her phone in the Priory. She was out and about for hairdresser, shopping.
‘Then all of a sudden this allegation is made. Miss Price, I think, is behind the allegation.’
Ms Price, 48, was cross-examined as a witness earlier this week, giving evidence in which she also told of not reading any media reports of his trial due to being ‘handcuffed to Suella Braverman all week’ in a Channel 4 show.
In 2021, the alleged victim contacted the NSPCC charity, which referred her to the police, prompting the investigation.
Hayler was first interviewed by police in January 2022 and denied any of the allegations took place and that anything sexual occurred.
Giving evidence to jurors last Tuesday, the complainant told the court that Hayler texted her after the third alleged rape, saying, ‘I love you goodnight,’ and she replied: ‘I love you too.’
The alleged victim’s mother last week told jurors her daughter liked the way Mr Hayler talked to her, saying: ‘She said he told her he didn’t have any friends and she could be his best friend. She liked the way he spoke to her.’
Asked why she did not tell anybody else about the rape allegations until after Ms Price contacted social services in 2018, the mother said: ‘I had to keep her secret and her trust.
‘I couldn’t tell my husband because I knew what the consequences would be. I didn’t want any of this for her.’
The mother has denied she was influenced by Ms Price to come to court and said her daughter was not interested in becoming a celebrity.
In a text message exchange between Ms Price and the girl, the jury heard Ms Price offered to make her a ‘little star’.
Asked on Tuesday in cross-examination by Ms Piercy about her use of the phrase ‘little star,’ Ms Price said: ‘That’s a figure of speech.’
Ms Piercy then asked: ‘When you use that figure of speech, what did you mean?’
Ms Price replied: ‘I don’t know, when she was 13 there’s no agenda or nothing behind it. It’s just a figure of speech.’
The messages had been read out to the alleged victim’s mother during her second day in the witness box last week, when Ms Piercy asked the mother if she was aware of the messages.
Hayler and Katie Price are pictured together at a London film premiere in November 2015
The witness replied: ‘My daughter wasn’t interested in becoming a star.’
Ms Piercy challenged the mother on what she knew about the allegations and when, asking: ‘You didn’t believe anything had happened, did you, and you didn’t do anything about it did you?’
The mother replied: ‘Yes, I did. I believed my daughter.’
Hayler also described finding the aftermath of a drink and drugs binge at Price’s home dubbed ‘Mucky Mansion’ after they split.
The jury heard he found cocaine and empty bottles around the house in Sussex before he moved out in 2018.
Hayler also told the court that he made up claims of being a sex addict for publicity after cheating on the model and TV personality.
Giving evidence on Friday, he was cross-examined by prosecutor Ryan Richter who put to Hayler that he was ‘practised at having affairs’ and that Ms Price described him as having a sex addiction.
He replied: ‘I have used that description, yes, but it’s not correct.’
Hayler told jurors he made up having a sex addiction after Ms Price and her management ‘created a narrative’ to make headlines and get income from the publicity.
He said it was also to save Ms Price the ’embarrassment’ he had cheated on her with their nanny.
Mr Richter said Hayler, in an interview with the Sun in 2017, told the newspaper: ‘Nobody wants to be a sex addict, nobody wants to cheat on their wife, but in that situation I haven’t been able to help that.’
When asked why he did that, Hayler today told the court: ‘It affected my life by talking about it. Kate decided that’s what we’re going to run with.’
The prosecutor said in the article he goes ‘out of his way’ to say Ms Price ‘isn’t a liar’.
Hayler said of the sex addiction claim: ‘It was just made-up publicity, as with all of Kate’s life.’
Mr Richter asked if the bit about Ms Price not being a liar was made up too, and he replied: ‘It is, yeah.’
Arlette Piercy, for the defence, asked Hayler if he believed Katie Price had a vendetta against him following the split.
He replied: ‘It wasn’t amicable.’
He added: ‘I’d never had any contact with police.’
Hayler and Katie Price are pictured together at a London film premiere in November 2015
Katie Price leaves Court after giving evidence against ex
Former reality TV star Hayler met Ms Price in 2012 and proposed on Christmas Day.
They married at a luxury Caribbean resort the following year but separated in 2018 and divorced three years later.
In a previous statement, Sussex Police said: ‘We can confirm Kieran Hayler, of Northchapel, West Sussex, has been charged with three counts of rape and one count of sexual assault against a 13-year-old girl.
‘The offences are alleged to have occurred at an address in West Sussex between June 1 and October 13, 2016.
‘The girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, has received support from specially trained officers as our enquiries continue.’
A spokesman for Hayler has previously said: ‘Kieran Hayler strongly denies the allegations made against him in their entirety.
‘Mr Hayler is fully engaged and has been co-operating with the police throughout the investigation and will continue to do so.
‘He looks forward to his name being cleared, believing in the judicial system to do so.’
The alleged victim is not part of Hayler or Ms Price’s extended families.
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