Justin Lee Collins' ex: "I put up with abuse because he was the love of my life"

THE ex-girlfriend of Bristol comedian Justin Lee Collins has admitted she was jealous and bombarded him with text messages after they split.

Under cross-examination by Collins' barrister Sonia Woodley QC, Anna Larke admitted Collins had given her the password for his e-mail account after she accused him of flirting with women.

"You were suspicious he might be seeing other people?" Ms Woodley asked Miss Larke, 38.

Speaking from behind a screen at St Albans Crown Court Miss Larke, a recovering alcoholic, admitted she was concerned that he flirted with women in e-mails.

"You were getting a bit jealous about that?" Ms Woodley continued.

The former video games PR admitted: "A bit. There was a slight issue there."

Miss Larke also admitted bombarding the comic with text messages – described in court as both loving and nasty – to Collins after the break-up.

She also checked up on him on websites and newspapers to see who he was with following the split.

In one text to him she said: "I can't imagine anyone but you. I want you and I miss you. I'm driving my family crazy."

A few days later, in another text she told him: "I asked my dad to take me to the emergency doctor because I think I'm on the verge of a breakdown."

A concerned Collins, pictured, called her family's home, where she was staying, and spoke to her father, the court heard.

"You had been drinking?" Ms Woodley asked. "I would have been drinking. Not very much because I was at home," Miss Larke admitted.

Miss Larke told the court she called Collins a "Z-list celebrity" and told him he was "going nowhere" in texts because she wanted to hurt him.

Finishing her cross-examination today, Ms Woodley accused Miss Larke of being a fantasist.

Miss Larke replied: "I would suggest I am absolutely not."

Earlier Miss Larke was on the verge of tears as she told a court she had put up with an abusive relationship because Collins was the love of her life. She told the jury she had not shown her doctor bruises she said she suffered at Collins' hands because she did not want to get him into trouble.

"I didn't want to do it to Justin. He was the love of my life," she said.

Collins, who moved from his Clifton home to live with Miss Larke in London last year, is accused of harassing and assaulting her during their nine-month relationship.

Miss Larke claimed she had been terrified about Collins returning from a trip to Las Vegas because she had failed to attend one of two Alcoholics Anonymous meetings which she had told him she would attend.

"I remember him ringing me and shouting abuse down the phone to me," she said. "I was petrified about him coming back."

Miss Larke also claimed Collins shouted at her and tore a 20-dollar note in front of her when she refused to have a lap dance in a club in Miami.

Earlier, the jury of nine women and three men heard that the 38-year-old star had bought her gifts including diamond earrings and a digital camera because she claimed he had hit her cat.

Miss Larke said: "He also abused my cat – animal abuser as well. I think he felt very guilty about that which is why he furnished me with gifts."

Miss Larke claimed she recorded arguments between the pair so she would not change her mind about leaving the comedian last July.

"I did that because I had decided to leave," she said.

"I didn't want to leave because I loved him to pieces."

The case continues.