Katie Price has been fined hundreds of pounds for hurling a foul-mouthed “tirade of abuse” at her ex-partner’s girlfriend and banned from contacting her after a row in a school playground.
The former glamour model previously said she was “definitely not guilty” of using threatening and abusive words or behaviour likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress in Shipley on September 6 last year.
She was due to stand trial at Horsham Magistrates’ Court on Monday.
But when the 41-year-old, who lives in Dial Post near Horsham, West Sussex, arrived at court she changed her plea to guilty, admitting the row with Michelle Penticost – who is now dating her estranged husband Kieran Hayler – and her friend Andrea Quigley in the playground of a primary school near Price’s home.
Paul Edwards, prosecuting, told the court the row took place in front of young children, was witnessed by a teacher and involved Price hurling a “tirade of abuse” including shouting “f****** c***” multiple times at both women.
Price, wearing a black faux fur coat, black trousers and heels, sat in the dock staring ahead while her boyfriend Kris Boyson sat in the public gallery.
Mr Edwards told magistrates Ms Penticost and her friend Ms Quigley were talking in the playground when they were approached by Price, who was also on the school run.
Price confronted Ms Penticost about pictures appearing in the press days before of her with one of the defendant’s children but when she was told she had interrupted a conversation, she replied: “I can interrupt who the hell I like” and called Ms Penticost a “f****** c***”.
Ms Penticost walked away before Price turned on Ms Quigley, saying:“I wasn’t talking to you, you stupid c***”, the court heard.
When she was asked to stop being rude, she replied: “I can be as f****** rude as I want to. Who are you, you stupid c***?”
Mr Edwards said Price was heard shouting “f******” numerous times and when Ms Quigley refused to tell her who she was, she claimed she would be able to find out who she was, adding: “I live publicly. Then you will see.”
In a victim impact statement read on her behalf, Ms Penticost – who did not attend the hearing – said she tried to avoid Price at school because she felt intimidated.
She said: “I’m anxious I may still see her and I just want to get outside the school as soon as possible.”
In the statement she claimed Price was “poisoning” the children’s view of her, adding: “Saying I’m fat, I have a big arse, that I hate mummy (Price).
“I have told them I like mummy.”
Price would also “verbally abuse” Ms Penticost to Mr Hayler when they spoke, asking “why he’s with me instead of her”, she said, adding: “The constant attack is wearing me down.
“I just want to be able to live a normal life.”
Paul Macauley, defending, said the outburst was prompted by Price’s discovery days earlier that Ms Penticost was in a relationship with Mr Hayler.
He noted Ms Quigley had also used the insult, according to her statement.
Ordering Price to pay £606 – including a £415 fine and court costs – chairman of the bench Michael Harris said a five-year restraining order forbidding her from contacting Ms Penticost directly or indirectly was “appropriate for this unpleasant event”.
Magistrates denied an application for compensation for the victims, saying this was “actually potentially inflammatory”.
Price told the magistrates: “All what they have said is completely untrue.
“I did say it once but not many times.”
Asked whether she could pay all costs today, she held out her credit card and said: “I can, they can have my credit card.”
Addressing the restraining order, Price told magistrates: “I don’t want to contact her.”
After the hearing, Price told reporters outside court she felt she had “no option” but to remove her children from the school, adding: “I did swear but the rest is just exaggerated nonsense.
“I feel totally intimidated and isolated from anyone at the school and it’s not fair on the children in creating this atmosphere.
“This was a one-off incident and as you all know I’m against bullying or anything like that, which is why I’m doing my Harvey’s Law.”
Asked if she was sorry, she replied: “No I’m not because I didn’t do anything that bad.”
This is the third criminal court case Price has faced this year and adds to more than £3,000 she has already been asked to pay in costs and fines.
She has been banned twice from driving – for being nearly twice the limit while in charge of her pink Range Rover and for driving while disqualified.
Her latest appearance comes after Boyson appeared in court in Kent on Friday accused of threatening a police officer after a row with a paparazzo.
He denied using threatening, abusive, insulting words or behaviour with intent to cause fear of or provoke unlawful violence near his Gravesend home and is due to stand trial later this year.
The allegation came a day after Price was arrested by police who found her slumped in a drunken state in the back of her Range Rover.