A 13-year-old girl allegedly raped by Katie Price’s ex-husband received a message from the model saying she would make her a ‘little star’, a court heard today.

Kieran Hayler, 39, is on trial at Lewes Crown Court accused of three counts of rape and one count of sexual assault against the teenager in West Sussex in 2016.

Messages sent in May 2017 between the girl, now aged 23, and Price were read to the jury today, in which Price asked her about rumours regarding Hayler. 

The complainant said she did not remember the exchange, but the court was told Price asked her whether Mr Hayler fancied her and if he tried to kiss her.

In one message, Price wrote: ‘I won’t say anything and I promise I’ll protect you. I’m only asking as this is a serious allegation to say.’

The girl, then aged 14, replied: ‘It was just a flirt thing and he knew it was wrong. Nothing happened.’

Price replied: ‘I won’t bring up any more, just want truth. I will make you a little star.’

She also asked the girl if Hayler had ever told her he fancied her, saying: ‘He done this before and it’s not fair on me. As long as I know the truth I won’t say. I promise.’

Kieran Hayler arrives at Lewes Crown Court this morning where he denies the charges

The girl replied: ‘Yes but I took it as a joke. Please don’t get angry at him because of me.’

The couple were in the process of breaking up at the time.

Arlette Piercy, defending, said there was ‘all hell letting loose between Katie and Mr Hayler at this time’, adding: ‘It was a toxic media bloodbath.’

Ms Piercy asked the woman: ‘What did you take her to mean when she said I will make you a little star?’

She replied: ‘I just ignored her.’

Ms Piercy then asked: ‘What did she mean by it? It’s a slightly strange thing to say.’

The woman said: ‘I don’t know.’

She also told the court: ‘I don’t think I said anything.’

Ms Piercy asked: ‘Why did you say twice nothing happened?’

But the woman responded: ‘I didn’t want to speak to anybody else about what happened.’

She also claimed that she was ‘trying to brush it off’. 

Ms Piercy told her: ‘I’m saying on behalf of Mr Hayler, nothing happened.’

The woman then insisted: ‘It happened.’

Ms Piercy also asked the woman about apparent contradictions in the accounts she gave to the NSPCC children’s charity and in two police interviews.

The witness has already told the jury she contacted the NSPCC in a rage after seeing Hayler on television being described as a brilliant father.

Katie Price and Kieran Hayler in London in February 2017. Hayler was married to Price at the time of the allegations but their relationship broke down in 2018 and they divorced in 2021

Ms Piercy said: ‘In your first report to NSPCC on October 6, 2016; you emailed outlining your complaint.

‘You said; “He had sex with me on a couple of occasions. Being so young, I didn’t quite understand what was happening. I asked him to stop on a few occasions”.’

The woman replied: ‘I was abbreviating. I was abbreviating what I was saying.’

Ms Piercy asked the woman why she did not tell police she asked him to stop.

The woman said: ‘I’m not too sure why. I can’t say.’

She told the court that Hayler told her to delete a message saying ‘I love you’, adding that Hayler sent her the message after the third alleged rape.

Ms Piercy told the woman: ‘It is not accepted any such text messages were sent. Where are those messages now?’

The woman said: ‘Deleted. Long gone, some years ago. I don’t have them anymore. Mr Hayler always asked me to delete the messages.’

Ms Piercy also suggested to the woman that the alleged rapes and sexual assault never happened, but the complainant told the jury: ‘I would never make it up.’

Judge Mark Van Der Zwart asked the woman: ‘If anyone suggested to you that Katie Price caused or encouraged you to invent these lies about Kieran, what would you say to that?’

The woman replied: ‘It’s not true, she hasn’t, no.’

Hayler was married to Price at the time of the allegations, but their relationship broke down in 2018 and they divorced in 2021.

He denies the charges and suggests his ex-wife had ‘launched a campaign’ against him when their marriage ended, and the allegations form part of this, the court has heard.

The alleged victim is not part of Hayler or Ms Price’s extended families. 

She told police she thought Kieran Hayler had brainwashed her into sex.

Ryan Richter, for the prosecution, asked the complainant: ‘You were asked about the first police interview at your house.

“Do you remember you said, “It was like he brainwashed me, it was the right thing to do. I thought it was a bit weird.

‘”He said, do you want to have sex and I said no. Halfway through, I said get off me and he started crying saying it was such a big thing.”‘

The lawyer asked: ‘Do you remember saying that to police? Is that your memory of the first incident?’

She replied: ‘I don’t know, I’m sorry.’

Mr Richter then asked, ‘Are you saying you don’t remember because you are making it up?’, to which she replied: ‘No. It’s because it was ten years ago.’

The woman was asked why she thought Katie Price was asking her about Hayler.

She told the jury: ‘Because she doesn’t like him, she’s got a vendetta against him and she would probably use me as a target against him.’

The trial continues.