Katie Price's ex-husband Kieran Hayler allegedly told girl, 13, he is accused of raping she could be his 'best friend', court hears

Katie Price's ex-husband Kieran Hayler told a 13-year-old girl he is accused of having raped and sexually assaulted that she could be his "best friend", a court heard.

Hayler, 39, is accused of committing three rapes and a separate sex assault against the complainant between June and October 2016, when he was married to the former glamour model. He denies all charges.

The girl's mum, who cannot be named for legal reasons, today told Lewes crown court: "[My daughter] said he talks to me about things. She said that he told her he didn't have any friends and that she could be his best friend. She liked the way he spoke to her."

The witness was giving her second day of evidence from behind a screen on Friday morning. She was asked about evidence heard earlier in the trial that Ms Price had quizzed the alleged victim, then aged 14, about Hayler's alleged conduct in a number of messages in May 2017 and told her “I’ll make you a little star”.

Speaking about her daughter, the woman today said: "[She] wasn't interested in being a star." The alleged victim's mum also denied claims by Hayler's barrister that she hadn't believed her own daughter's claims about Hayler and didn't do anything about them.

Hayler's barrister Arlette Piercy told her: “You didn’t believe anything had happened, did you and you didn’t do anything about it did you?” The woman said: "Yes I did, I believed my daughter."

Asked by the prosecution if she was making up her claims that her daughter told her about Hayler doing things to her, she said: "no". Pressed on whether anyone had influenced or pressured her to come to court by anybody to make that up, she replied: "Nobody".

Despite telling Ms Price about the allegation, the woman told the court she felt unable to tell anyone else, including her own husband, who is also the complainant's dad, after her daughter swore her to secrecy. She said: "I had to keep her secret and I had to keep her trust".

She added: "I didnt want to tell my husband because i knew what was the consequences would be". Asked what she meant, she said: "All of this. I didn't want any of this for her". The woman also told how she has undergone what the defence described as "forgiveness counselling" by a therapist in order to cope with what her daughter says Hayler did to her.

The previous day, on Thursday, the jury of five men and seven women had heard Katie Price told the authorities her then husband Kieran Hayler had groomed and sexually abused his alleged teenage rape victim from when she was aged 13 and had fallen in love with her.

In a list of agreed facts read in court, the jury was told that on August 9, 2018, Ms Price told a social worker her then husband had been grooming the alleged complainant. The court heard Ms Price had alleged Hayler "had been grooming her since she was 13, grabbing her bottom and telling her he was falling in love with her".

Also on Thursday, the complainant's mum told the court Ms Price seemed "angry and feeling vengeful" towards her then husband after being told he had allegedly sexually abused the girl.