Former glamour model Katie Price has escaped jail and been handed an 18-month community order after admitting breaching a restraining order by sending abusive messages to her ex-husband Kieran Hayler about his fiancee Michelle Penticost.
Price had arrived at Lewes Crown Court, on Friday morning, in an all-green outfit clutching the arm of her fiance Carl Woods.
Nicholas Hamblin, representing Katie Price, said his client had pleaded guilty to the breach, which occured in January, but she had been under a “misunderstanding" that the restraining order ”worked both ways".
Thought to be triggered by an Instagram post by Ms Penticost, Price’s message at the time read: “Tell your c***ing w****, piece of s**t, girlfriend not to start on me.
“She has a restraining order so shouldn’t try to 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.”
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 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 Hamblin said there was an element of "provocation" and Price 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 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".
In a victim impact statement read to the court, Penticost said 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."
When she broke the restraining order, Price was serving a 16-week suspended prison sentence for a drink drive near to her home in Sussex when she was uninsured and did not have a valid licence.
Price is due back in court again next month when she is accused of speeding.
