Katie Price has avoided jail for breaching a restraining order that banned her from contacting her ex-husband's new partner. She sent an “angry and inflammatory” message to her ex-husband, the court heard.
Price sent a message to Kieran Hayler back in January of this year, calling his new partner Michelle Penticost, a “****ing w****” and a “gutter s***”. The 44 year-old pleaded guilty to breaching the restraining order.
She was sentenced to an 18-month community order with 150 hours of community service, plus an additional 20 hours for breach of a suspended sentence for driving matters. Price was also ordered to pay £1,500 court costs at Lewes Crown Court, East Sussex.
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Judge Stephen Mooney told Price: “In my judgement, this offence was committed out of anger. The words you used were highly offensive and inflammatory so the breach cannot be considered minor.
“In my judgement, balancing the aggravating and mitigating and aggravating factors, the appropriate sentence is a medium level community order.” Price showed no emotion as the verdict was announced before giving a brief smile as she left the dock.
In June 2019 she was banned from contacting Ms Penticost directly or indirectly with a five-year restraining order. She was also fined £415 for shouting a foul-mouthed “tirade of abuse” at her during an argument in a school playground.
The court heard that the message may have been triggered by an Instagram post by Ms Penticost, but she denies it was aimed at Price. The court also heard that the offence was committed as a result of the words that Price used. By using the words "tell your" it was an indirect attempt to communicate with Ms Penticost, the court heard.
In a written victim impact statement, Penticost said that the breach had a “devastating effect” on her mental wellbeing. She said: “The impact of what Katie has done is very upsetting, I feel threatened and intimidated. I feel demoralised and not wanting to go out. The language used made me feel scared. I felt it was an attack on me.
“The consequences are I feel she will attack me. I felt by having a restraining order it would make me feel safe but by someone breaching it it has made me feel very vulnerable.”
Attending court in an all green outfit Price was heard telling a reporter to “suck my d***” when she was asked about potentially going to prison. Nicholas Hamblin, representing Price, said that his client had pleaded guilty to the breach however she had been under a “misunderstanding” that the restraining order “worked both ways”.
He also said that there was an element of "provocation" and that she had been “over-reacting as she felt she was being criticised”. He then added: “She has shown signs of remorse, she accepts an indirect breach.”
He also added that Price had got help for her emotional problems at the Priory Clinic. He said that she had suffered from a “depressive disorder and anxiety” and then added: “Miss Price is learning to cope with her emotional problems and to not react in the way she has in this case.”
He continued: “She has two different personalities, the public one and the vulnerable one of being in the public eye, every day in the public eye no matter what she does. It’s perhaps a case of building someone up only to knock them down.”
He also said that “there was a lot of good to be said” for Price and she was considered in a probation report to be at “low risk of re-offending”.
Mr Hamblin added that the offence was a “minor breach” of the restraining order because it was an “indirect” message and would have been “much more serious” if sent directly to the complainant’s phone.
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