Kieran Hayler has been acquitted of raping and sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl when he was married to Katie Price after a court heard he said the charges were part of a “smear campaign” against him by his ex-wife.
The 39-year-old 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.
Speaking to reporters outside court while supported by his mother, Mr Hayler thanked his friends and family who stuck by him “for five years of absolute hell”.
Kieran Hayler, accompanied by a friend leaving Lewes Crown Court (Gareth Fuller/PA)
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His turbulent relationship with media personality Ms Price was laid bare during proceedings as he accused his ex-wife of setting him up with “fabricated” allegations.
But Ms Price, who gave evidence against Mr Hayler, denied being “angry and vengeful” towards her ex-husband.
The jury, made up of four men and six women, returned the verdicts after 14 hours and 55 minutes of deliberation.
Mr Hayler cried in court and was doubled over as he was told by the judge he could leave the dock and was discharged.
Mr Hayler told reporters: “I’m grateful to the jury for their careful consideration of this difficult case.
“I’d like to be left in peace now to rebuild my life and spend time with my family.”
He also thanked his legal team for their “unwavering assistance throughout this extremely difficult time”.
Following the verdicts, a Sussex Police spokeswoman 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.”
Mr Hayler and Ms Price were together for five weeks before they got engaged and subsequently married in the Bahamas in January 2013.
Mr Hayler told jurors “trust had gone on both sides” in the marriage by midway through that year, but the couple did not split up until 2018 when he moved out and they later divorced in 2021.
He stressed during the trial that he was “attracted to older women” and accepted having affairs with three older women during his marriage with Ms Price.
Mr Hayler cried in court when the judge told him he was free to leave (Gareth Fuller/PA)
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During the trial, prosecutor Ryan Richter had put to Mr Hayler: “Your feud with Katie Price is not what this case is about, is it?”
He replied: “It is.”
Mr Richter went on: “This case is about you having raped a girl, isn’t it?”
Mr Hayler said: “I have not.”
During his evidence, the personal trainer told jurors he thought Ms Price was “coaching” the teenage girl after discovering messages she sent to her.
He took pictures of messages on Ms Price’s phone when they were together in which she talks to the girl about Hayler fancying her, adding: “I will make you a little star.”
Ms Price had told the trial the phrase was a “figure of speech” but Mr Hayler said it was a “very strange comment to make”.
He said: “Everyone can interpret it how they want, it’s very pushy.
“I thought she was coaching her into (saying) something she shouldn’t.”
Mr Hayler’s former partner, Michelle Pentecost, also gave evidence to the trial as a defence witness, telling the court about “numerous threats” they would receive from Ms Price during their seven-year relationship.
The 44-year-old told jurors: “All the time she’ll be throwing out threats, ‘I’m going to make everyone think you’re a paedo’.”
Ms Pentecost appeared emotional in the public gallery at Lewes Crown Court as the verdicts were returned in the trial on Thursday.
Elsewhere, it can now be reported that Ms Price’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”.
Katie Price gave evidence during the trial (PA)
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In a legal application to the judge, barrister Arlette Piercy argued that evidence given by Ms Price resulted in an “overwhelming tsunami of prejudice to us which we are simply unable to deal with”.
Of Ms Price’s evidence, some of which cannot be reported for legal reasons, the lawyer said: “She then went on a deliberate, malicious and in my submission, premeditated attempt to bring down this trial.”
She added that “the significance of it was written all over the jury’s faces”.
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”.
In his ruling, the judge described Ms 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.