After claiming she ‘misunderstood’ the terms of a restraining order when she wrote a ‘vile and nasty’ message about her ex-fiancée, husband’s Katie Price walked free from court today, avoiding jail once more.
After confessing to the breach in which she called Michelle Penticost a “gutter s**g” in a text message to Kieran Hayler, the former glamour model was threatened with time in jail.
The former I’m A Celeb star, 44, was prohibited from communicating with Miss Penticost directly or indirectly for five years in June 2019. She was wearing an all-green outfit to court and was overheard telling a reporter to “suck my d**k” when she was asked about the possibility of a prison sentence.
This happened when she yelled a derogatory “tirade of abuse” at her during a fight on the schoolyard.
Tell your c***ing w***e piece of s**t girlfriend not to start on me, the message read.
‘She has a restraining order so shouldn’t try antagonise me as she is in breach and I’m sure she doesn’t want people knowing that she was having an affair with you behind my back. That gutter s**g.’
The use of the phrase “tell your” by Price in an indirect attempt to contact Penticost was what the court heard caused the offense to be committed.
It was also claimed that Miss Penticost’s Instagram post, which she denies was directed towards Price, may have served as the catalyst for her communication to Mr. Hayler.
However, Price was informed today at Lewes Crown Court that instead of going to jail, she would have to perform 170 hours of community service and pay £1,500 in fines.
“In my judgment, this offence was committed out of anger,” Judge Stephen Mooney told Price.
‘The words you used were highly offensive and inflammatory so the breach cannot be considered minor.
‘In my judgement, balancing the aggravating and mitigating factors, the appropriate sentence is a medium-level community order.’
Price showed no emotion as the verdict was announced but gave a brief smile as she left the dock.
Mr Hayler and Miss Penticost said this morning: ‘We are incredibly disappointed with the result of today’s court hearing.
‘We feel a custodial sentence would have sent the right message to the public given the seriousness of Miss Price’s offending.’
Earlier in a hearing, Miss Penticost said in a victim impact statement how the impact of the restraining order breach by 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.’
Nicholas Hamblin, representing 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 added: ‘She has shown signs of remorse, she accepts an indirect breach.’
Mr Hamblin said that Price had sought help for her emotional problems at the Priory Clinic.
He said she suffered from a ‘depressive disorder and anxiety’, and 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 and 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 at ‘low risk of reoffending’.
Mr Hamblin said 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.
Price was arrested at her home by officers at around 5.45pm on January 21 and taken to Worthing police station.
After a 12-hour round of questioning, she was released, though not before officers confiscated her phone, which they examined for evidence.
At an earlier hearing Crawley Magistrates Court was told Price sent the ‘vile and nasty’ message after Michelle Penticost uploaded an Instagram post about how to deal with people who were treating you badly.
The court heard there was a history of ‘clear antagonism’ between Miss Price and Miss Penticost.
Last year Price was handed a 16 week suspended sentence after crashing her BMW X5 while drunk last September.
Price then dodged a potential jail term in January after £7,358 fines she owed for driving offences were paid at the last minute.
She now faces a fresh allegation of speeding which is due to be heard before magistrates in July.
Earlier this year Price again avoided jail after striking a last-minute deal to pay off her bankruptcy debts.
The 44-year-old was scheduled to appear before the High Court to explain why she hadn’t paid back £2.3m she owed after being declared bankrupt in 2019.
But the former model had her bankruptcy hearing postponed for a second time after agreeing an 11th-hour deal to pay back the money.
It comes after Price was pictured cutting a solemn figure as she left her make-up masterclass in London after a low turnout last night.
In recent months, the former beauty model has been giving masterclasses for admirers across the nation. On Wednesday afternoon, she also participated in a class in Leicester.
After the class, she was picked up by her fiancé, 33-year-old Carl Woods, from former Big Brother contestant Aisleyne Horgan-Fakin’ Wallace’s It salon.
As she exited the store, Price was spotted carrying a handbag with beige accents, pink and red gift bags, and other items.
She was dressed in pink sneakers with white soles and a brown tracksuit with a short-sleeved blouse.
As she walked to Woods’ car, the former Celebrity Big Brother winner hid her eyes behind a pair of sunglasses.
The former I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! Campmate appeared to have only a few guests for her London outing, with some fans posing for photos outside the salon prior to the event.
After hosting the workshop, she was seen gathering her luggage inside the salon.
After her tragic drink- and drug-fueled breakdown, Price said earlier this year that she had “hit rock bottom.”
The star discusses the collision, for which she received a 16-week suspended sentence and a two-year driving ban, in scenes from her Channel 4 series Katie Price’s Mucky Mansion.
When Katie flipped her uninsured BMW X5 into a hedge while driving while drunk and disqualified on a country road close to the Sussex property that is featured in her new series, she told the camera that she “could have killed someone or myself.”
After the September crash, Katie is seen in the next scenes going back to her house to resume the makeover while the voiceover informs us that she has spent a total of 30 days in a mental health facility.
She tells the camera: ‘I mean I can deal with a lot of things, stress, pressure, I breathe that. Behind closed doors there’s drama, no ones life is perfect.
‘When it hits me personally, that’s what I can’t deal with. I regret getting in the car, I could have killed someone. I could have killed myself. My kids might not have had a mum. It’s awful.
‘I was rock bottom at that point. It was a wake up call. I don’t want to be in that situation again. In fact I don’t want to be in a situation where I feel that sad inside that I need to just go and do something, be destructive and hurt people around me because I don’t know how to cope with it.
‘I have now decided to see a therapist every week for the rest of my life and put my hand up and say yeah I need help, help me.’