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.
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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