Katie Jarvis: who is former EastEnders actress, did she stop acting - what did she plead guilty to in court?

Former EastEnders star Katie Jarvis who shouted “black lives don’t matter” during a dispute by the seaside in Essex has been sentenced to a community order.

She had admitted racially aggravated harassment and common assault following an incident on 31 July, 2020.

Jarvis, who played Hayley Slater in the BBC soap from 2018 to 2019, had previously denied the two offences, which happened in Southend-on-Sea.

She was given a two-year community order, with 200 hours of unpaid work and a requirement to complete 60 days of specified activities.

This is everything you need to know.

Who is Katie Jarvis?

Jarvis is an English actress who is best known for starring as Hayley Slater in the BBC soap EastEnders. She appeared on the show from 2018 to 2019.

She was born in Dagenham, East London, on 22 June 1991. She gave birth to her daughter, Lillie Mae, on 9 May 2009, and in April 2011 she gave birth to her son, Alfie.

Prior to being cast on EastEnders, Jarvis began her acting career at 17 when she bagged the part of Mia Williams in the 2009 film Fish Tank, directed by Andrea Arnold.

Fish Tank won the Jury Prize at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival, and Jarvis won the British Independent Film Award for her performance.

Talking about Fish Tank in 2009, Jarvis said: “There weren’t a lot of people at the first audition so I wasn’t nervous, but at the second it became a bit more scary as there were a lot of girls.

“I’d never done any dancing or anything like that and I didn’t think I had a chance.”

She said that she got the call saying she got the part on her birthday, where she “cried my eyes out”.

Her other roles include parts in films like Ginger, Devil’s Play, Two Graves and Let’s Talk About George, and TV shows like Suspects and True Horror.

Did she stop acting?

In October 2019, Jarvis, in her own words, “took a step back from acting” and started working as a security guard for a B&M store in Romford - something that became the focus of a number of tabloid newspapers which wrote negatively about Jarvis’ new job.

At the time, many celebrities came to Jarvis’ defence, stating that she was being “job shamed” by the press.

Talking to the Victoria Derbyshire Show about the negative attention she was receiving, Jarvis said that she felt “ashamed” when she saw the story about her working at B&M.

Jarvis said, however, that despite her time working on TV and film sets, she had always maintained other jobs on the side, such as waitressing.

She said: “That’s the life of an actor - I like to be busy and learn new things.”

Jarvis added that her B&M colleagues were “amazing”.

She continued: “As long as you’re working, that’s all that matters, no-one should be shamed for what they do.

“The way the story was portrayed wasn’t very nice. It was quite nasty - to be made to feel degraded is wrong.

“Security guards put themselves at risk, there’s a lot goes into it. I feel I need to stand up for working class people.”

What has she pleaded guilty to?

Jarvis was sentenced on Wednesday over the incident which started after Jarvis got into a dispute with a group of women outside a fish and chip restaurant.

Cyrus Shroff, prosecuting, said tensions flared after someone tried to lift an empty chair from a table with four seats where Michelle Antonio, who is black, was sitting with two others of her group of four people.

He told Basildon Crown Court that Ms Antonio had said the chair was being used, then saw the 30-year-old defendant and told her that she could not take the seat as it was needed by a fourth person in her party.

He said differing accounts have been provided over what happened next, with Jarvis claiming Ms Antonio was “aggressive”, which Ms Antonio denies.

Mr Shroff said Jarvis walked off, shouting “black lives don’t matter anyway”, before making another offensive remark, and then going on to say: “I’m a celebrity”.

He said it “appears a fight broke out between the parties”.

Mr Shroff said Ms Antonio said that Jarvis’s comments made her “feel disgusted and angry”, and that she “can’t believe in 2020 these things are still being said”.

He said that at around 9.15pm bouncer Toby Groom denied Jarvis entry to the Hope Hotel, and when she returned an hour later Mr Groom again asked her to leave.

“She started shouting abuse again towards him”, Mr Shroff said.

“She then spat towards him.

“It’s right to say there’s no suggestion it connected to him.

“He notified the police and soon after that at about 11pm officers arrested Ms Jarvis.”

He said that Jarvis, of Rainham, east London, told officers “she was racially wrong and she was drunk”.

What did her defence say?

Patrick Harte, mitigating, said Jarvis “maintains she didn’t physically assault anyone that day”.

He said she was “sorry to the people who heard her use the awful language on that day, and to Mr Groom the doorman, who was simply doing his job”.

Mr Harte said Jarvis “drinks very rarely” and on the day in question “had been in London – she had a number of successful interviews for films”.

“She was celebrating,” he said.

“She bumped into a friend she hadn’t seen since school days. There were high spirits.”

He said Jarvis alleges she did not use the language “until after the argument turned physical”, and that she responded “appallingly” after a “pile on” when four or five women jumped on her.

He said the “language used isn’t what she believes”.

Mr Harte read a statement from Jarvis’s aunt through marriage, Sonja Gater, who is an ambassador for a charity against knives in west London, which said she “knows for a fact” Jarvis is not racist, adding: “I wouldn’t have racist people in my life.”

Mr Harte said the incident had caused Jarvis “enormous hardship”.

“The last movie she shot was in 2020,” he said.

“She hasn’t worked in films since.

“She tried to get a job in The Range to make ends meet, she went for a four-hour shift to try out.”

He said the shift appeared to go well and she was given a uniform, but that “the CEO got wind of her employment and she was sacked”.