Katie Price’s ex-husband Kieran Hayler cleared of raping 13-year-old in 2016

Read the original at Evening Standard ↗
Cite

Hossein-Pour, A. (2026, October 22). Katie Price’s ex-husband Kieran Hayler cleared of raping 13-year-old in 2016. Evening Standard. https://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/kieran-hayler-katie-price-west-sussex-press-association-b1301931.html

Dated from the outlet's own feed. Check the original for its byline.

Evening Standard · collected 2026-10-22 · by Anahita Hossein-Pour
Content note This article describes sexual violence.

Quick Summary

Kieran Hayler, former husband of British media personality Katie Price, has been acquitted of raping and sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl in 2016. The jury deliberated for approximately 14 hours before reaching their verdicts. During the trial, Hayler's defense accused Price of fabricating allegations against him as part of a smear campaign. Despite this, Judge Mark van der Zwart warned the jury to disregard certain prejudicial statements made by Price in court.
Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-10-22, using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the same event (that is the story summary below).

AI analysis runs on qwen2.5:14b, locally

Story summary

Kieran Hayler, 39, was found not guilty on October 22, 2026, by a jury at Lewes Crown Court of raping a 13-year-old girl in West Sussex in 2016 while he was married to Katie Price. The jury deliberated for nearly 15 hours before delivering their verdicts. Hayler also faced four alternative counts of sexual activity with a child, all of which he was cleared of. During the trial, Hayler maintained that the allegations were part of a "smear campaign" by his ex-wife and admitted to having affairs with three older women during his marriage to Price from January 2013 until July 2021. His emotional release from the dock was witnessed as he wept, bent over, and thanked his supporters for their support through "five years of absolute hell."

Written for “Kieran Hayler Acquitted Of Rape” on 2026-10-23, grounded in this article and the 4 other(s) covering the same event.

Story

📰 Kieran Hayler Acquitted Of Rape
Crime & Law · 5 article(s) covering the same event. Compare every outlet's account →

Compared with similar articles

This article reads unscored and hedges 12% of its claims. Each row says how that neighbour differs.
Evening Standard · 1.00 cosine similarity
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 4% hedged 1 of 24 📰 publisher trust 65
“Both articles describe Kieran Hayler being cleared of raping a 13-year-old girl and four alternative counts, with identical details on his statement and support from family.”
Evening Standard · 1.00 cosine similarity
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 7% hedged 2 of 29 📰 publisher trust 65
“Both articles describe Kieran Hayler being acquitted of charges related to raping and sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl in 2016, with identical details about the trial's outcome and Mr. Hayler's statement outside court.”
Daily Mail · 0.96 cosine similarity
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 5% hedged 5 of 95 📰 publisher trust 64
“Both articles report on Kieran Hayler being found not guilty of raping a 13-year-old girl in West Sussex, with the verdict delivered at Lewes Crown Court on the same date.”
BBC News · 0.95 cosine similarity
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 12% hedged 1 of 8 📰 publisher trust 69
“Both articles report on the same trial outcome for Kieran Hayler, found not guilty of raping and sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl in 2016.”
How this article was measured signals, leaning charts, publisher record, byline, topics and claims

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted
17
sentences that state something as happening or true
Uncertain
12%
2 of 17 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")
Leaning
not political
takes no side on a contested political question
Publisher signals
65/100
Evening Standard's corrections and hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.
Outlets on this story
5
Crime & Law
Same framing elsewhere
1
articles that frame the event the way this one does
Analyzed 2026-10-22 · how these are computed

How this is being covered How these are calculated →

Article leaning vs. publisher reliability
Source leaning vs. consistency

Publisher

Evening Standard · 6765 article(s) · 56 correction(s) detected
Running correction rate · 56 correction(s)

Who wrote this

Anahita Hossein-Pour
14 article(s) here · 1 carrying a prediction
🔮 Mr Hayler cried in court and was doubled over as he was told by the judge he could leave the dock and was discharged.
🔮 Mr Hayler cried in court and was doubled over as he was told by the judge he could leave the dock and was discharged.
🔮 Mr Hayler cried in court and was doubled over as he was told by the judge he could leave the dock and was discharged.
🔮 Hayler, 39, took pictures of messages on Ms Price’s phone when they were together in which she talks to the girl about Hayler fancying her, adding: “I will make you a little star.”
🔮 He said: “No never, the thought someone thinks I would do that is horrible, it makes me feel sick.”
🔮 Previously she denied being “angry and vengeful” towards her ex-husband, and denied any animosity towards him after a 10-month affair with their nanny. Jurors heard Ms Price had chosen the nanny because she “wasn’t very attractive” and a “little bit overweight”, in the hope that Hayler would not cheat on her.
🔮 Previously she denied being “angry and vengeful” towards her ex-husband, and denied any animosity towards him after a 10-month affair with their nanny. Jurors heard Ms Price had chosen the nanny because she “wasn’t very attractive” and a “little bit overweight”, in the hope that Hayler would not cheat on her.
🔮 Jurors heard Ms Price had chosen the nanny because she “wasn’t very attractive” and a “little bit overweight”, in the hope that Hayler would not cheat on her.
🔮 Ms Price is expected to be cross-examined as a witness on Tuesday.
🔮 Asked by prosecutor Ryan Richter what his response was, Ms Price said: “I can’t remember his response but his response all the time was ‘no I hadn’t’.” Ms Price said she could tell the teenage girl, who was allegedly raped by her then-husband, was “afraid” from messages they exchanged. The former glamour model was asked about messages between her and the complainant, saying: “I can’t remember the exact messages, but it was that Kieran had tried to kiss her, that he had done stuff to her.”
Also by Anahita Hossein-Pour
Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.
All 14 articles by Anahita Hossein-Pour →

Topics

No topics tagged.

Subjects

Price PERSON · 6× Hayler PERSON · 5× Arlette Piercy PERSON · 1× Katie Price PERSON · 1× Kieran Hayler PERSON · 1× Mark van der Zwart PERSON · 1× Ryan Richter PERSON · 1×

Narrative

Kieran Hayler has been acquitted of raping and sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl when he was married to Katie Price after a court heard he said the charges were part of a “smear campaign” against him by his ex-wife. He was also cleared of four alternative counts of sexual activity with a child.
framing: assertive · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-10-22
🔮 Mr Hayler cried in court and was doubled over as he was told by the judge he could leave the dock and was discharged.
2026-10-22 · Evening Standard
Katie Price’s ex-husband Kieran Hayler cleared of raping 13-year-old in 2016 · assertive framing

Claims (17 extracted, 2 hedged)

Kieran Hayler has been acquitted of raping and sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl when he was married to Katie Price after a court heard he said the charges were part of a “smear campaign” against him by his ex-wife. He was also cleared of four alternative counts of sexual activity with a child. asserted
He → acquit → child
Speaking to reporters outside court while supported by his mother, Mr Hayler thanked his friends and family who stuck by him “for five years of absolute hell”. asserted
who → speak → hell
His turbulent relationship with media personality Ms Price was laid bare during proceedings as he accused his ex-wife of setting him up with “fabricated” allegations. asserted
he → lay → allegations
Read More But Ms Price, who gave evidence against Mr Hayler, denied being “angry and vengeful” towards her ex-husband. asserted
who → read → husband
The jury, made up of four men and six women, returned the verdicts after 14 hours and 55 minutes of deliberation. asserted
jury → make → deliberation
Mr Hayler cried in court and was doubled over as he was told by the judge he could leave the dock and was discharged. uncertain
he → cry → dock
Mr Hayler told reporters: “I’m grateful to the jury for their careful consideration of this difficult case. asserted
I → tell → case
“I’d like to be left in peace now to rebuild my life and spend time with my family.” asserted
I → like → family
He also thanked his legal team for their “unwavering assistance throughout this extremely difficult time”. asserted
He → thank → time
It can now be reported that Ms Price’s first day of evidence during the trial led to Mr Hayler’s defence team calling for the jury to be discharged, accusing her of a “premeditated attempt to bring down this trial”. asserted
jury → report → trial
In a legal application to the judge, barrister Arlette Piercy argued that evidence given by Ms Price resulted in an “overwhelming tsunami of prejudice to us which we are simply unable to deal with”. asserted
we → argue → which
Of Ms Price’s evidence, some of which cannot be reported for legal reasons, the lawyer said: “She then went on a deliberate, malicious and in my submission, premeditated attempt to bring down this trial.” asserted
She → report → trial
She added that “the significance of it was written all over the jury’s faces”. asserted
significance → add → faces
Prosecutor Ryan Richter disputed the argument and instead suggested it was from the celebrity witness “having lost control”. uncertain
witness → dispute → control
Judge Mark van der Zwart dismissed the legal bid and instead later gave the jury a warning that what she said was “not correct and you must disregard it”. asserted
you → dismiss → it
In his ruling, the judge described Ms Price as “what barristers of a previous generation would have called a dangerous witness” with a personal agenda in proceedings and who was “liable to say something prejudicial given half a chance.” asserted
who → describe → chance
“Discharging this jury was unlikely to prevent the same situation arising again at a re-trial,” he said. asserted
he → discharge → trial
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