TV star 'made girlfriend sleep facing him and told her to throw away DVDs with actors she fancied'



'If he awoke to find she had turned away he would wake her and criticise her'

Collins 'made girlfriend throw away her DVD collection on the basis she found some of the male actors in the movies to be attractive'

Comedian 'assaulted and harassed his girlfriend during their nine-month relationship in campaign of domestic abuse'

He made Anna Larke close her email, Facebook and Twitter accounts

Miss Larke said Collins had 'destroyed her life' and she had stayed with him because she 'worshiped the ground he walked on'

'It made me feel horrible and disgusting but I was so in love with him', Larke



TV star Justin Lee Collins subjected his girlfriend to a humiliating nine-month campaign of verbal and physical abuse, a court heard yesterday.

Among a series of bizarre demands, the comedian allegedly forced Anna Larke to help him compile a detailed dossier of her former lovers.

He also made her sleep facing him in bed and ordered her to throw away DVDs featuring actors she was attracted to, it was claimed.

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Justin Lee Collins as he arrives today at St Alban's Crown Court where he faces charges of harassment against his former partner

On top of this, it was alleged that Collins told Miss Larke to close down her Facebook account, stop using Twitter and abandon her email address.

The court was told he even banned her from looking at other men, saying: ‘When you’re with me you look at the ****ing ground, you look at a tree ... you don’t look at any other ****ing human being.’

Anna Larke, Collins' alleged harassment victim

Miss Larke also alleged Collins, who appeared in the West End musical Rock of Ages, has a problem with ‘people of colour’ accusing her of sleeping with men from ethnic minorities.

The father of two is accused of assaulting and harassing Miss Larke, 38, after he moved in with her in January last year following the breakdown of his marriage. He denies a charge of harassment by causing Miss Larke fear of violence between January and August last year.

St Albans Crown Court heard Collins, who found fame with Channel 4’s The Friday Night Project, initially showered Miss Larke with ‘beautiful gifts and lovely dinners’ and even put £1,000 into her bank account.

Former PR worker Miss Larke said: ‘It seemed like no big deal between being with the love of my life and being on Facebook.’

But she claimed Collins, 38, soon began a campaign of verbal and physical abuse against her saying she was a ‘sex addict’ who was ‘riddled with’ sexually transmitted diseases.

The jury of nine women and three men was told Collins compiled a dossier of Miss Larke’s previous sexual encounters in a notebook.

Peter Shaw, QC, prosecuting said: ‘She felt it was a disgusting thing to have to do and she was worried that she would lose him by doing it. But he told her it would help the relationship and help him deal with her past.

‘When Mr Collins was satisfied that Miss Larke had provided a sufficient amount of information he signified his satisfaction with the word: “Done”.’

Speaking about the notebook Miss Larke told the court he had wanted a full account of her previous sexual activity.



Collins pictured in 2011 with his former girlfriend Anna Larke after he split from his wife

She thought it was ‘weird’ but went along with it because she ‘worshipped the ground he walked on’ and didn’t want to lose him.

Miss Larke said Collins demanded to know who she was speaking to on her phone or who she was texting.

‘He knew everything about me,’ she said. ‘It was the ultimate power really.’

The court heard how Collins had first met Miss Larke in 2006 when he was the presenter of the Golden Joysticks video game awards and she was a public relations worker.

They had an ‘intimate’ relationship that was ended by Collins when he was exposed by the News of the World in 2008 for cheating on his wife with a woman other than Miss Larke.

Collins is the former host of the Friday Night Project. The court heard he 'insisted' that his girlfriend 'sleep facing towards him'

The prosecution claimed Collins contacted Miss Larke again in November 2010 via Facebook and he left his wife shortly afterwards and moved from Bristol to Kew in South-West London.



She said that he claimed to be unhappy in his marriage and told her he had had ‘six one-night stands’.

After Miss Larke moved in with Collins he allegedly began to try to control her – even insisting she throw out DVDs featuring actors she might be attracted to.



She told the court she had been forced to dump a box set of the series Smallville because she had once fancied the actor who played Superman.

Miss Larke, a recovering alcoholic, also said she was sleep deprived because Collins insisted she always lay in bed facing him.



She said he would wake her and criticise her if he woke and found she had turned away from him.

Jurors heard the comedian, pictured at an earlier court appearance, assaulted and harassed his former partner during their nine-month relationship



She added: ‘He would make me stay awake until he went to bed. This was sometimes four or five in the morning. He used to say if I fell asleep before him I was running the risk of him texting other women.’

The court was told Collins would physically assault Miss Larke by slapping her, grabbing her arms, pulling her hair and spitting on her face.

In a videoed police interview played to the court she said: ‘Anything would trigger it, there was such a temper on him.’

She said when he hit her in the face ‘my whole jaw and teeth were killing me and I would get bruises’.

St Albans Crown Court where the court heard Collins made his former girlfriend recount every sexual experience she had ever had for a notebook he kept as part of a campaign of domestic abuse

In July 2011 Miss Larke said they had gone to a pub and she had suggested Collins cuddled her like a couple who were nearby.

This allegedly caused Collins to fly into a rage and when they returned home Miss Larke recorded his tirades on a mobile phone. The jury was played the recordings in which Collins can be heard calling her a ‘****ing slag’ and a ‘dirty vile whore’.

Collins was a ‘very depressed and angry man’, said Miss Larke. She said he once claimed he wanted to jump off Clifton suspension bridge in his home town of Bristol.

Miss Larke also claimed Collins left her in fear of her life. During her police interview she claimed he said: ‘Tell anyone what I have done and I will kill you and I’ll kill myself.’

The case continues.



