Katie Price’s ex-husband Kieran Hayler has been found not guilty of sexually attacking a 13-year-old schoolgirl.
Hayler, 39, was charged with three counts of rape and one count of sexual assault following alleged incidents in West Sussex in 2016.
He was acquitted on Thursday, October, 22, following a trial at Lewes Crown Court.
He was also cleared of four alternative counts of sexual activity with a child.
Hayler, of Northchapel, West Sussex, wept as he was released from the dock at Lewes Crown Court.
Hayler’s turbulent relationship with Ms Price, to whom he was married from 2012 to 2021, was laid bare during the court proceedings.
He accused the media personality of setting him up with “fabricated” allegations, saying that it was a “smear campaign against me”.
On the stand, Ms Price denied being “angry and vengeful” towards her ex-husband.
Katie Price was described by a judge as a ‘dangerous witness’ with a personal agenda who nearly collapsed the trial of her ex-husband.
The jury, made up of four men and six women, returned the verdicts on Friday after nearly 15 hours of deliberation.
During the trial, Price was accused by her ex-husband of ‘coaching’ the alleged victim after discovering messages in which his then-wife suggested he fancied the girl and promised to make her ‘a little star’.
Hayler told the court: ‘I am attracted to older women’, adding that all his significant relationships had been with older women.
He admitted having affairs with three other women during his marriage to Price, but claimed she had also been unfaithful.
The court heard that the couple’s relationship had broken down by mid-2013, with Hayler telling jurors that ‘trust had gone on both sides’.
Hayler said he discovered messages between his wife and the alleged victim in 2017 while searching Price’s phone for evidence that she was having an affair.
The court heard that Price had messaged the teenager, claiming she had heard Hayler and the girl had kissed and that he had ‘tried it on’ with her.
In another message, the former glamour model told the girl: ‘I will make you a little star.’
Hayler said he found the exchange suspicious and took photographs of the messages on his own phone.
Asked by his defence barrister Arlette Piercy why he had photographed them, he replied: ‘Because she made out that I fancied (the complainant).
‘I thought, ‘This is a bit weird’.’
Judge Mark van der Zwart sent out the jury, made up of six women and five men, to begin their deliberations on Tuesday afternoon.
In closing speeches on Monday, prosecutor Ryan Richter said: ‘You’ve seen the big personalities, the big egos in this case and you’ll judge it, you’ll cut through it.
‘You’ll decide whether those big voices drown out the voice of (the complainant) or whether that voice has made you sure on the counts of this indictment.’
Defence barrister Arlette Piercy said in her closing speech that Hayler has been consistent and clear throughout his defence, in what has been a ‘roller coaster ride for everybody in this court’.
Hayler said the allegations started after he split from his ex-wife and after she checked out of The Priory rehab clinic following her conviction for rolling her car while under the influence of drink and drugs.
He said: ‘The timing is almost identical. Every time something was going bad for her, a bad news story or something to do with me, there would be a threat to do with me and this.’ ReadDaily News
He said despite being checked into the Priory after her conviction, Katie Price was ‘out and about’, adding: ‘This was three years after our relationship ended.
‘She had her phone in the Priory. She was out and about for hairdresser, shopping.
‘Then all of a sudden this allegation is made. Miss Price, I think, is behind the allegation.’
Hayler also described finding the aftermath of a drink and drugs binge at Price’s home dubbed ‘Mucky Mansion’ after they split.
The jury heard he found cocaine and empty bottles around the house in Sussex before he moved out in 2018.