TV comic guilty of harassing
vulnerable
ex-partner

Sentencing the funnyman, who has cancelled an appearance next month at a charity gala for the Princes’ Trust, the judge told him it should be “humbling work” for someone with such a prominent career in showbusiness.

The 10-day trial at St Albans Crown Court heard that Collins, who made a name for himself as a host on Channel 4’s The Friday Night Project, was a controlling, jealous boyfriend who was physically violent towards Anna Larke, 38.

Jurors heard Collins, also 38, subjected Larke, a video games public relations worker, to sustained emotional and domestic abuse during their seven-month relationship, and made her write down in a Pukka pad all her previous sexual encounters regardless of how graphic they were.

The court was told Collins made her sleep facing him, throw away DVDs that featured actors she found attractive and made death threats.

Collins also stopped Ms Larke using social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter after reading her messages.

Jurors were played a secret recording she made of him verbally abusing her during a row, in which he called her a “f****** slag”, a “dirty vile whore”, and a “f****** sex addict”.

He said the recording showed him at his worst but denied all her other claims, describing her as a “fantasist” and telling the court he had never hit anyone in his life.

Eleven jurors found Collins, of Kew, south west London, guilty of harassing Ms Larke after being given a majority direction by the judge. One juror was discharged late Monday.

Judge John Plumstead told him: “This is humbling work for somebody who lives a prominent public life but the very humility that the manual work should induce will make you pause and think about what you have done.

“You’ve had a successful career and led up to this time a decent life. It would have been very much to your credit if you had had the courage to admit your violence against Ms Larke and for that you will pay the price.”

The judge described Ms Larke as a “vulnerable woman” and said the crime was a “very serious matter”. “It’s serious because any violence in any relationship when people should be able to rely on each other is a serious breach of trust.”

Collins had claimed his relationship with Ms Larke was “absolute hell” and his ex-wife was among those to give evidence on his behalf.