Justin Lee Collins found guilty of harassment

Comedian and televisionpresenter Justin Lee Collins, 38, has been found guilty of harassing his former partner.

A jury at St Albans CrownCourt heard that had he subjected his girlfriend, Anna Larke, to sustained emotional and domestic abuse during their seven-month relationship. He had assaulted her, made her sleep facing him, banned her from using social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, and made her throw away a number of DVDs because they featured actors she found attractive.

The court also heard that hehad forced her to write down all her previous sexual encounters.

During the trial, jurors were played a secret recording she made of him verbally abusing her during a row.

Collins - who made a name for himself as a host on Channel 4's The Friday Night Project - had denied ever attacking her, saying that he had never hit anyone in his life. He said he had only ever slapped Ms Larke, who was a recovering alcoholic, to calm her down when she was self-harming, He also claimed that she was obsessive, jealous and possessive.

Collins, from Kew in west London,was sentenced to 140 hours unpaid work and ordered to pay £3,500 in prosecution costs.