Katie Price avoids jail after breaching restraining order against ex-husband's fiancee

Katie Price has avoided jail after admitting breaching a restraining order by sending abusive messages to her ex-husband Kieran Hayler about his fiancee Michelle Penticost.

The former glamour model was instead handed an 18-month community order at Lewes Crown Court to carry out 170 hours of unpaid work.

The reality TV star, 44, pleaded guilty earlier this year to breaching the five-year restraining order. Price sent abusive messages to Kieran Hayler about his fiancée, Michelle Penticost, in January, a court heard.

The 44-year-old had been banned from contacting Ms Penticost directly or indirectly under the terms of a restraining order imposed in June 2019.

However she sent Kieran Hayler a message on January 21 this year in which she branded Penticost a "gutter slag".

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 but she gave a brief smile as she left the dock.

Nicholas Hamblin, representing Katie Price, said his client had pleaded guilty to the breach but she had been under a "misunderstanding" that the restraining order "worked both ways".

He said there was an element of "provocation" and she had been "over-reacting as she felt she was being criticised".

He added: "She has shown signs of remorse, she accepts an indirect breach."

Mr Hamblin added, "Miss Price is learning to cope with her emotional problems and to not react in the way she has in this case."

"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 added that "there was a lot of good to be said" for Price and she was considered in a probation report to be of "low risk of re-offending".

In a victim impact statement read to Lewes Crown Court, Michelle Penticost said the impact of the restraining order breach by Katie Price 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."

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