A former EastEnders actress who shouted "black lives don't matter" during a dispute by the seaside in Essex has been sentenced to a community order. Katie Jarvis, who played Hayley Slater in the BBC soap from 2018 to 2019, got into a dispute with a group of women outside a fish and chip restaurant in Southend-on-Sea at around 7.30pm on July 31, 2020.
Cyrus Shroff, prosecuting, said tensions flared after someone tried to lift an empty chair from a table with four seats where Michelle Antonio, who is black, was sitting with two others of her group of four people. He told Basildon Crown Court that Ms Antonio had said the chair was being used, then saw the 30-year-old defendant and told her that she could not take the seat as it was needed by a fourth person in her party.
He said differing accounts have been provided over what happened next, with Jarvis claiming Ms Antonio was "aggressive", which Ms Antonio denies. Mr Shroff said Jarvis walked off, shouting "black lives don't matter anyway", "black c****" and "I'm a celebrity".
