Katie Price has found herself at the centre of a fresh new ‘bad taste’ row after showing off her fashion outfits after appearing in court for ex-husband Kieran Hayler’s rape trial
Katie Price has found herself at the centre of a “bad taste” row after promoting her fashion outfits while giving evidence at ex-husband Kieran Hayler’s child rape trial.
Hayler, 39, was found not guilty of three counts of rape and one count of sexual assault of the teenager in West Sussex in 2016 following a trial at Lewes Crown Court. He was also cleared of four alternative counts of sexual activity with a child.
Mum-of-five Katie, 48, had appeared at the court in East Sussex to give evidence having exchanged messages with the teenage girl who made the allegations. Katie was married to third husband Hayler from 2013 until their separation in 2018 following a number of infidelities before going on to officially divorce in 2021.
While giving evidence, she said that she was “really shocked” when first told of the allegations regarding her husband and said she could tell that the teen girl was “afraid”. She was also grilled during cross-examination after telling the teen that she would “make [her] a little star” in messages between them, with Katie claiming she was using a “figure of speech”.
Following her appearances in court, she shared a series of pap photos of herself outside court and called the street “my runway” as she credited brands, some of whom gifted her the items. Considering the severity of the allegations and that she was giving evidence after the alleged rape of a child, her posts have been criticised for being in bad taste.
After leaving court on October 12, Katie shared a pap photo of herself in a brown trenchcoat, matching stilettos, shades and a beige tote bag. She wrote: “Feeling chic” with a heart emoji as she tagged the brands she was wearing, including her full outfit from JYY London, shades from GRVTY CLUB and bag from Marc Jacobs.
On October 13, she was pictured wearing an oversized faux fur coat with white trousers and leopard print heels as she held a water bottle. Again, she tagged the brands and wrote: “The street is my runway.”
While it’s not clear whether she was being paid to promote all of the brands, both JYY and GRVTY CLUB re-posted the photos. Katie has previously done paid promotional work with JYY.
Katie’s rep declined to comment when approached by the Mirror.
In court, Kieran accused the former glamour model of setting him up with “fabricated” allegations and called it a “smear campaign” against him. However, Katie denied being “angry and vengeful” towards him.
In court, Katie described the allegations against her ex-husband as “disgusting” and told jurors she was “really shocked” when she first heard of them. In messages read to the court, Katie was also revealed to have told the alleged rape victim “I’ll make you a little star” while quizzing her on the allegations. The former glamour model claimed that she was “using a figure of speech”.
Katie also accused Kieran’s lawyer of “discrimination” and trying to “turn this case against me” during an angry exchange.
However the jury, made up of four men and six women, returned the not guilty verdicts after 14 hours and 55 minutes of deliberation.
It can now be reported that Katie’s first day of evidence during the trial led to Mr Hayler’s defence team calling for the jury to be discharged, accusing her of a “premeditated attempt to bring down this trial”.
In his ruling, the judge described Katie 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.
Katie’s first day of evidence during the trial led to Hayler’s defence team calling for the jury to be discharged, accusing her of a “premeditated attempt to bring down this trial”.
In a legal application to the judge, barrister Arlette Piercy argued that evidence given by Katie resulted in an “overwhelming tsunami of prejudice to us which we are simply unable to deal with”.
Prosecutor Mr Richter disputed the argument and instead suggested it was from the celebrity witness “having lost control”. Judge Mark van der Zwart dismissed the legal bid and instead later gave the jury a warning that what she said was “not correct and you must disregard it”.
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