Katie Price has vowed to fight to get "justice" for her son Harvey after a man was cleared over an offensive video mocking her eldest child.
Harvey and Katie Price
The former glamour model was left infuriated after Phillip Lewer, 52, was found not guilty of sending by public communication network an offensive message because it was meant to be a "joke" and not intended to cause offence.
The 43-year-old star called Lewer a "coward" and said he was "grinning" while giving evidence at Hasting Magistrates Court on Thursday (10.06.21).
In the clip in question, which Lewer had shared to Twitter because he found it “mildly amusing”, a man - who has not been identified and did not stand on trial - appears in blackface to impersonate 18-year-old Harvey - who has a number of disabilities, including blindness, Prader-Willi syndrome and ADHD.
In the video, a woman says: "If someone says something horrible to Harvey, what do we say?"
And the man says: "Hello you *****."
Katie previously launched Harvey's Law in 2017, proposed legislation to make it illegal to troll and abuse others online.
In a statement, Katie said of the disappointing verdict: "I will still fight for justice for Harvey and I’m still going to try and protect everyone I can with the racism, mocking disability, because it’s clearly mocking him.
“This is why I’m doing Harvey’s Law - he’s got away with it and he’s probably going to go back and laugh.
“He was laughing on the way out, he was grinning while he was giving evidence - but I kept my dignity and didn’t say anything because I know, behind the scenes, I’m doing the best I can to stop this.
“He’s a coward. We can all have freedom of speech, but you know when something’s wrong and he knew that video was wrong.
“He should be named and shamed. But it’s now going to encourage other people. He’s got away with it.
“I feel disappointed in the court.
“They should’ve followed it through to put an example out there that you will be prosecuted, there is a consequence - when really, it’s just proved you can mock a disabled child online and get away with it."
Katie said there was “not enough evidence” to prosecute those in the video.
She concluded: “It sickens me to know that they’re probably laughing at us saying ‘ha-ha, he’s got off it, we’ve got off it’.”
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