Katie Price’s ex-husband, Kieran Hayler, is on trial accused of carrying out three rapes, as well as a separate sex assault. He denies all of the charges
Kieran Hayler arriving on court on Tuesday morning for the second day of his trial(Image: Adam Gerrard / Daily Mirror)
A woman who claims Katie Price’s ex-husband Kieran Hayler repeatedly raped her when she was aged 13 has told a court the TV personality made contact with her telling her she would support her in her police complaint.
The complainant said in her police interview that Katie had ‘threatened’ Kieran and tried to make him ‘slip up’ by questioning him over the allegations.
Kieran Hayler, 39, who denies all of the charges against him, is on trial at Lewes Crown Court accused of three rapes and a separate sex assault against the alleged victim, between June and October 2016, when he was married to Price.
In a video recording of the complainant’s original police interview, filmed in December 2021, today shown to the court, the accuser said Ms Price had reached out to her to say, “I know you’re going through a tough time, I support you through everything.”
The complainant said she thanked Price and replied: ‘Oh thanks for your support’ or something ‘but I can’t talk about it at this time’. [Katie] replied again after that saying ‘I’ve done my interview’ or something. ‘Have you done yours yet? I’ll support you’.”
She said she later deleted the correspondence and blocked the TV star as she was worried she may pass the messages on to Hayler. She added: “That’s the only contact we’ve had.”
Elsewhere, in her police interview, the complainant, who is not a member of Hayler or Ms Price’s extended family, claimed Kieran Hayler had phoned her and told her Katie Price had threatened him over the allegations.
She was seen telling a police officer: “I remember him ringing me and he said something like ‘you promise you won’t tell anyone? What we had was special. You better take it to the grave. If you tell anyone I’ll get in trouble.
“I remember him saying if I said anything it wouldn’t end well for me. I didn’t think he’d ever hurt me, I just thought if I ever said anything he’d probably say I was lying or making it up or make me look a lot worse, so I never wanted to say anything. She keeps saying ‘I know what you did’. You promise you haven’t said anything? I said ‘I promise I won’t’.
The complainant added: “[Price] kept bringing me up, kept using me as a threat to him, saying, ‘I know what [the complainant] said to me. I know what you did.’
“I think she was trying to get him to admit to something by accidentally slipping up and saying something, but he’d never said anything.”
Asked why she had now decided to report the matter to police, the complainant said: “Because I don’t want to go down the line in 20 years time and find out he’s done it to more than just me. I’d never forgive myself, so I wanted to say something. I’d just hate myself if I never just said something.”
The complainant said she recalled seeing a news article, which included claims about Hayler being “a great dad” and “an amazing man”. She said: “I got this rage inside of me. He’s not amazing. He’s ruined my relationships with other people and ruined sex for me. I was so angry. I got on my phone and started emailing the NSPCC.”
The alleged victim said she did not initially tell her mum what had happened for fear of her judging her. She wept as she said: “I didn’t want my mum to think I was disgusting or be disappointed in me for what had happened because I thought it was my fault for ages.
“Like I’d led him on or… I thought it was my fault it had happened for ages because I kind of thought I should have done more about it and stopped him doing it. But I kind of let him do it, so I thought it was my fault for ages.”
She added: “At the time I thought he really cares about me, he’s not doing something horrible. He was still acting the same way that he was before – I kind of thought I had to do the same and not change anything.
“I kind of remember thinking, ‘why is he acting as though nothing has happened?’ because he was acting as he did before. He’d blocked it out, so I thought I had to do the same and not think about it.”
In video of the same interview shown on the first day of Hayler’s trial on Monday the victim was seen wiping away tears as she claimed Hayler raped her on three separate occasions.
Asked about the first time she claims Hayler attacked her, she told a female police officer: “Unfortunately, I can’t really remember how it all started, but I just remember him having a conversation with me about sex and almost describing it to me as if it was a good thing and something I needed to do.
“Obviously, it was my first time, so I didn’t really know what sex really was. I just remember him saying how special the first time was and how it was important.
“He started crying and saying, ‘Ooh, maybe I shouldn’t take it away from you. Its so important, it’s like so special’. I said ‘Well, let’s not do it then’ because I didn’t really understand what he was talking about and then all I remember was him taking off his clothes and then he started taking off my clothes. I was very confused by the whole thing.”
Asked about the second alleged rape, which she claims began while she was asleep, she said: “The second time it was the same position as the first time. I woke up and he’s on top of me and his face is in my face. I didn’t say anything. I just laid there thinking, ‘What’s going on?’. I think he was just rocking backwards and forth.”
Asked about the third alleged rape, she said: “I’ve tried to forget it for so many years. I think he got on top of me and started having sex with me. I think this went on for a lot longer than it had before.”
The alleged victim claims Hayler sexually assaulted her again the next day before warning her not to tell anyone what had happened. She told officers: “He was like, ‘You can’t talk about it, you can’t tell anyone, I might get in trouble for this’. I think he grabbed my hand… and put it down his trousers.
“I remember immediately pulling it back out while he was talking to me. He was trying to explain why he’d done it. He was trying to tell me when he was younger his dad wasn’t nice to him and he had a rough childhood and stuff like that and he had problems. He was trying to get me to feel sorry for him almost.”
Prosecutor Ryan Richter said the girl first told her mum about the alleged attacks – which it is claimed took place at an address in West Sussex – in August 2017. While opening the case on Monday afternoon, Mr Richter said: “She told her mother then that ‘something had happened’.
“When her mother asked ‘What?’, she replied ‘He did things to me’ and ‘he pinned me down’. When she asked her what he had done, she replied to her mum ‘Well, he did everything to me, mum’.”
Mr Richter added: “This is a case of rape. The prosecution alleges that Mr Hayler used his personality and charm, firstly to win the friendship and then the trust of a 13-year-old girl. The prosecution says when he had developed that trust, he then used that trust to sexually abuse and rape her.”
The complainant contacted children’s charity the NSPCC by email in 2021, when she was aged 18, before later speaking to police in December 2021. Mr Hayler was interviewed about the allegations by police the following month and denied that any of them took place.
Mr Richter said: “Mr Hayler denies these allegations. He denies that anything sexual ever happened and she is simply making the allegations up. He suggests that behind these allegations lies his relationship with his ex-wife Katie Price and he says it is she who has launched, effectively, a campaign against him, of which this is a part.”
Mr Richter added: “He alleges that Katie Price set out in a campaign against him and that [the complainant], in making these allegations, is a part of that. You will no doubt consider that with care. The prosecution say that there is no connection between the things that happened in the relationship and the allegations [by the complainant]. What [the complainant] is saying is not, the prosecution say, motivated by Katie Price.”
The trial of Hayler, a former reality TV star, is expected to last seven days in total, before the jury retire to consider their verdicts next week. The group of five men and seven women were formally sworn in on Monday morning before the trial began later the same day. The trial continues.
*If you have been the victim of rape or sexual assault, you can access support at www.rapecrisis.org.uk or by calling the helpline on 0808 802 9999.
