Comedian’s girlfriend accused of attempted blackmail

The girlfriend of Justin Lee Collins was accused of trying to blackmail the comedian.

Anna Larke, 38, was asked whether she had threatened to report the former Friday Night Project host to the police if he did not give her £20,000 after they broke up.

Sonia Woodley QC, defending Collins, also 38, said: “You told him ‘Give me £20,000 or I’m going to hurt you and I’m going to go to the police’.”

Ms Larke, who alleges Collins harassed and assaulted her during their nine-month relationship, replied: “Oh my god that’s absolute lies. I’ve never said that”

Ms Woodley said Collins texted her back saying “I’ve offered you all sorts of help but I’m not getting involved in blackmail”, the jury at St Albans Crown Court heard.

Ms Larke told the court: “If I had just wanted money I would have gone straight to the press.”

The court heard the public relations worker wasn’t in a job at the time.

Collins, of Kew, London, denies one charge of harassment by causing her fear of violence.

Giving evidence, Ms Larke’s mother Penelope told the court her daughter would call her and tell her that Collins had smacked and sworn at her.

Penelope Larke said her daughter seemed happy at the start of the relationship but things changed when she moved to London to live with the comic.

“I could tell from her voice. I asked her ‘Are you happy darling?’ She said ‘I’m ok mum, just you know. He has a bad temper and everything has to be perfect’,” Penelope Larke said.

She said her daughter told her Collins had pressurised her to tell him about her sexual past.

“I said it wasn’t very decent of him to ask such personal questions but she said he said to her ‘If you don’t tell me you can fuck off out of my house,” Penelope Larke said.

Ms Larke also told her mother Collins had smacked her on the face but asked her to keep it secret.

“She told me he smacked her in the private parts. I told her it wasn’t a very healthy relationship and that she should just pack her bags and come home.”

Her husband, Jeremy Larke, told the court it was like “walking on eggshells’ when their daughter visited the family home while she was with Collins.

Mr Larke said he asked his daughter about “reddish marks” on her face and arms but said she dismissed them and would change the subject if they asked her about the relationship.

Her moods would be “up and down” and she seemed “depressed”, Mr Larke added.

Following the split, he described his daughter as being “completely irrational and torn apart”.

“She said there had been a fiery end to it,” Mr Larke told the court.

He said his daughter told him that Collins had assaulted her during a trip to America only when she moved back home.

Mr Larke told police his daughter had told them he had grabbed her hair, dragged her around the room and smacked/kicked her in her genital area, the court heard.

“It was a great shock to me. I can’t believe he would beat her up. I am very upset about it,” Mr Larke, dressed in a grey suit and checked shirt, said in the witness box.

The case continues.