Wednesday 26 September 2012

Justin Lee Collins 'made girlfriend recount every sexual encounter for notebook



Comedian and television presenter Justin Lee Collins made his girlfriend recount every sexual experience she had ever had for a notebook he kept as part of a campaign of domestic abuse, a court heard today.

 Justin Lee Collins and girlfriend Anna Larke
Justin Lee Collins and girlfriend Anna Larke Photo: REX/FLYNET

Comedian and television presenter Justin Lee Collins made his girlfriend recount every sexual experience she had ever had for a notebook he kept as part of a campaign of domestic abuse, a court heard today.
The 38-year-old also made Anna Larke throw away her DVD collection ''on the basis she found some of the male actors in the movies to be attractive'', it is alleged.
The performer assaulted and harassed his girlfriend during their nine-month relationship last year, said prosecutor Peter Shaw, at St Albans Crown Court.
A jury of nine women and three men heard that Collins, who came to fame with Channel 4's The Friday Night Project, made Ms Larke, 38, close her email, Facebook and Twitter accounts after reading her messages.
They met while Collins was still married. Ms Larke helped him move from Bristol to Kew, south west London, in January 2011, and she moved in with him.
Mr Shaw said: ''The main part of that relationship was characterised by this defendant exerting control over her, verbally abusing her and physically assaulting her.''
The defendant ''exhibited a desire to restrict'' his girlfriend's activities, the barrister said.
''Significantly, Mr Collins resorted to compiling a dossier in the form of a Pukka Pad notebook.
''The purpose of the notebook was to list every sexual experience with every one of Ms Larke's previous lovers or partners.
''He would ask her questions and then write it down.
''She felt it was a disgusting thing to have to do and she was worried that she would lose him by doing it.
''He sometimes accused her of lying about the details of her past and initially she did lie about her past because she regarded it as acutely private but he told her that it would help the relationship and help him deal with her past.''
Mr Shaw added: ''When Mr Collins was satisfied that Ms Larke had provided a sufficient amount of information he signified his satisfaction with the word 'Done'.''
Collins was "insistent" that his girlfriend, a recovering alcoholic, "sleep facing towards him and that, if he awoke in the dead of night to find that she turned away from him in the bed, he would rouse her and criticise her for having turned her back to him", the prosecutor said.
Mr Shaw said Ms Larke, a video games public relations worker, tried to help the defendant get anger management therapy and sent him a link to a domestic violence course.
"Mr Collins would often verbally abuse her and mention details in the pad," said the barrister.
"He would call her a slag and a filthy whore and similar derogatory terms.
"He once told her she was riddled with STDs."
One entry in the pad referred to a man who expressed a desire to slap the victim which she allowed but found unpleasant and did not want to repeat.
Mr Shaw said: "Once, when the defendant lost his temper with Ms Larke, he slapped her in the face.
"He told her in effect that she must like it in a sexual way because she had allowed a previous boyfriend to do so.
"He wanted to know from her why he couldn't slap her in the face."
Collins, sitting in the dock and wearing a beard and long hair, listened as Mr Shaw added that he had threatened to "put her in hospital unless she shut up." He also physcially stuck her with his hand in an intimate area, it was claimed.
A party of schoolchildren on a field trip was sitting in the public gallery. Half left during the prosecution opening.
On a trip to Miami in March 2011, Collins grabbed his partner's hair and pulled her to the floor, the barrister said.
"He pinned her down and spat in her face.
"She was screaming so loudly that a member of the hotel staff attended the room to see what was happening."
In May that year, Collins returned home from filming abroad and was "angry" that Ms Larke had only managed to attend one Alcoholics Anonymous meeting that day rather than two.
"He wanted to know what she had been doing while he was away and accused her of infidelity," said Mr Shaw.
"He was slapping her and she was forced to flee the flat screaming for help."
Collins was also said to have assaulted Ms Larke in June 2011.
He went to collect her in his car and got angry when she was not where he expected her to be, it was alleged.
"He threw a sat nav at her and pulled her hair and yanked her head back," said Mr Shaw.
On July 2 the couple visited a pub and Collins told Ms Larke to put her arm around him, the court heard.
Ms Larke pointed out a younger couple hugging and said she wanted to be held in the same way.
Collins accused her of "fancying the man", Mr Shaw said.
Later, back at their house, a row ensued and Ms Larke recorded it.
Clips were played in which Collins is heard shouting: "You f------ up at the pub. When you're f------ with me, you look at the f------ ground, you look at a tree, you look at a bench, you look at any f------ inanimate object, you do not look at any other f------ human being, you s--g, do you understand?"
In the recording, Collins accuses Ms Larke of being "very promiscuous" and having had 50 lovers.
The recording also captured Collins shouting, in his distinctive West Country accent, that his girlfriend was a "f------ slag, a dirty vile whore" and a "f------ coke-head, a f------ sex addict, a f------ lesbian".
The clip, which Ms Larke said she made to have a record of his behaviour and to "bolster her resolve" also captures Collins telling her to "get the f--- out of my life, get back to being the s--g you are".
An interview between Ms Larke and police was played to the jury.
In it she repeatedly breaks down in tears and says their relationship was initially "really lovely" and she was "absolutely in love".
She also says she "worshipped the ground" Collins walked on and would massage his back and feet and would do his hair.
She said she believed Collins made her write in the sex pad because "he had low self-esteem, so he could persecute himself and use it against me - he knows everything about me, which is the ultimate power, isn't it?"
She said when he assaulted her his temper would "blow" and he "smacked" her in the face.
"My whole jaw and teeth were killing me and I would get bruises," she said.
"He would pull my hair and jar my neck so badly."
She also said Collins attacked her in public "but nobody did anything".
In his police interview, Collins denied ever assaulting Ms Larke "other than slapping her cheek to calm her when she'd been self-harming".
Collins, who appeared in the West End musical Rock Of Ages, told detectives that Ms Larke was the possessive one in the relationship.
Collins denies harassing his ex-partner.

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