Collins 'made ex recount sex life'

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 has heard.

The 38-year-old comedian and TV presenter 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 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."

He added: "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."

Collins denies harassing his ex-partner.

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.

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." Collins was also said to have assaulted Ms Larke in June 2011. "He threw a sat nav at her and pulled her hair and yanked her head back," said Mr Shaw.

In his police interview, Collins denied ever assaulting Ms Larke "other than slapping her cheek to calm her when she'd been self-harming".