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COUNTDOWN thug Richard Brittain claimed he had a “dressing room encounter” with star Carol Vorderman.

The Record yesterday told how creepy Brittain, 28, travelled almost 500 miles from his home near London to confront Paige Rolland, 19.

The former Countdown champion brutally smashed a wine bottle over the teenager’s head as she stacked shelves in the Asda store in Glenrothes, Fife where she worked.

On Monday Brittain admitted the assault, which happened in October last year.

Sentence was deferred at Glasgow Sheriff Court pending reports and he was remanded in custody.

Now it has emerged he posted a bizarre video online titled: On Being a Countdown Champion.

He begins by stating: “If you are a British viewer you probably immediately recognised me as the winner of series 55, which I won back in 2006.”

He then shows viewers a framed picture of himself with the trophy flanked by presenters Des Lynam and Carol Vorderman.

Bizarrely, Brittain continues: “I know you want me to talk about rumours of dressing room encounters I may or may not have had with Carol Vorderman.

“But I’m not going to go into that because that isn’t my style.”

But the former co-host’s agent John Miles told the Scottish Sun: “I’ve looked after Carol for 30 years and have never heard of this man.

“Any suggestion of anything happening is completely untrue.”

Brittain also claimed Lynam didn’t like him because he never smiled.

After his court appearance, Paige, now a student midwife, spoke of the horror of the attack, which came without warning and left her with a gaping head wound.

The teenager said: “Had he hit me any harder, I could have died.

“My first thought when I realised I had been assaulted was for my mum and how awful it would be for her to get a phone call saying I had died.”

Brittain, from Bedford, tracked Paige down using her Facebook page after she left an unfavourable review of his self-published book, The World Rose, on review website Goodreads.

Keen reader Paige said she bought the book after seeing Brittain, who won Countdown in 2006, leave several arrogant messages on the website describing it as “wonderful”.

She said: “I thought it must be amazing as he was very arrogant and telling famous published authors their opinions were meaningless.

“So I bought it and didn’t like it. I think I only managed a few chapters before I had to put it down.

“It was pretentious and not very good and I said so on Goodreads.

“I did receive some anonymous messages harassing me and telling me I was terrible and I wasn’t going to get anywhere.

“I did think it was him and the moderators of the websites helped me sort it out. I thought that was the last of it until the morning of the attack.”

Paige was stacking shelves in the Asda cereal aisle and bent down to get something on the bottom shelf.

Without warning or saying anything, Brittain then approached her from behind and smashed a wine bottle into her head.

Speaking of the moment she was attacked, Paige said: “When I stood up I thought something hit me on the head.

“At first, I thought that maybe I’d hit my head off the shelf and, as everything started to spin and go black, I wondered how I could be so stupid as to hit my head so hard.

“My vision was black and my hearing was muffled.

“I did not pass out and turned and put my hands out to lower myself to the floor gently, which is something my mother has always taught me to do should I think I’m going to pass out.

“I heard the tinkle of a bottle on the floor and I thought that something had fallen on me. Blood was covering my hands and dripping down my arms.

“Without the pressure on my head, the blood spread down my hair and the back of my neck.

“Before I went into shock for the first time, a colleague pressed towels to my head and someone covered me with a heavy jacket to try and stop it from happening.

“I heard one customer say to my colleague that someone had come from behind me, hit me with a wine bottle and walked away.”

Prosecutor Harry Findlay told the court: “Brittain went to the alcohol aisle and picked up a bottle of wine. He then went to the aisle where the complainer was working.

“He approached her from behind, she was kneeling down collecting cereal from the bottom shelf of the aisle.

“The accused approached without warning, any provocation or words and he struck the complainer on the back of the head with the bottle.

“One blow. It made contact and the wound bled immediately and she had a moment of unconsciousness.”

(Image: Daily Record)

Brittain was identified from CCTV footage at the shop and traced a short while later by detectives.

Paige said: “I’ve never met Richard Brittain, never spoken to him. I knew it was him from pictures on the internet.

“I couldn’t believe it. The attack has left me nervous and fearful. I find it difficult to meet new people and am nervous in big crowds.

“I have bad anxiety and I feel nervous if I see anyone who reminds me of him.

“I’ve just started university and I’m nervous putting my opinions across. “I find it weird and creepy he tracked me down and travelled to Scotland to assault me.

“But then his book was about a woman he was stalking for years. The fact that he assaulted me and didn’t say a word is horrifying.

“He actually got a friend to message me thanking me for helping him to ‘see the light’, whatever that means.”

Paige is glad that Brittain spared her facing him in a courtroom by admitting the offence.

She said: “I’m relieved about the guilty plea. It’s just a huge weight off my chest.

“I was completely enraged when I was told he was pleading not guilty to force a trial because he did do it and I felt sure that he knew exactly what he was doing.

“The not guilty plea made no sense to me.

“Now that he has entered a guilty plea, I feel more balanced in myself.

“I’m still angry, but I find it easier to deal with now. This feels like justice without the emotional difficulties that come with fighting for it.

“I’m just glad it’s now going to end and I can try to get on with my life.”

Paige also believes Brittain should be jailed in order to “get the help he needs”.

She said: “They told me five years is the maximum he can be jailed for and I hope it is for that long.

“You don’t hunt a stranger down who lives hundreds of miles away and then attack her for writing a bad review of your book.”

Britain also stalked a former university classmate, Ella Durant, 23, who moved from London to Glasgow.

He kept contacting her - despite her pleas not to do so - and travelled to Glasgow to see her.