Justin Lee Collins has been found guilty of harassing his former partner Anna Larke. During their seven-month relationship, the jury heard, the TV presenter subjected the PR worker to “sustained emotional and domestic abuse,” The Telegraph reports. He is said to have insisted that Anna recount her sexual history to him, whilst he wrote it all down in a notepad and also forced her to sleep facing him. He is also accused of pushing her in front of a moving car whilst he was drunk, on a night out.

Collins appeared in court to hear the verdict, wearing a black blazer, shirt and jeans. He showed no emotion when the guilty verdict was read out. Although Collins had denied most of the claims made against him, he was unable to deny the content of a recording that Larke had made of him insulting her. In the recording, he could be heard calling her “f****** slag", a "dirty vile whore", and a "f****** sex addict.” In his defence, he said that the recording showed him at his worst but said that he had never attacked her in any way and had never hit anyone in his life. He did however, say that he had slapped her, but said that it was to “calm her down” when she was self-harming.

Justin Lee Collins has now been sentenced to 140 hours of unpaid work within the next 18 months and has been ordered to pay £3,500 in prosecution costs. One juror was discharged yesterday. The remaining 11 took a further 3 hours and 46 minutes to arrive at their majority verdict.