Why Celebrity Big Brother must not let bully Justin Lee Collins back on TV

It's not worth bringing back the man who brought back Grange Hill and Dallas

Some things are worth resurrecting.

Grange Hill, if only for the comic strip credits. Proper Star Trek. The A-Team, unless it's a Hollywood version starring Liam Neeson. And Dallas has actually risen again and is almost - but not quite - as marvellous as it was the first time around.

But the television career of mulleted moron Justin Lee Collins? It should be stripped, stabbed, shot and buried at a crossroads at midnight with a stake right through its heart.

With a big sign overhead saying "PLEASE SPIT."

It was reported today the so-called comedian is "mulling over" an offer of £100,000 to be a housemate in the upcoming series of Celebrity Big Brother.

Someone at Channel 5, presumably drumming up interest in a programme which doesn't get as much tabloid coverage as it used to, has revealed he wants to show "the real JLC" just two months after a conviction for putting his girlfriend in fear of violence "made life difficult" for him.

Justin Collins with Anna Clarke
Trusting: But Anna Larke's affair with Collins turned nasty

Unfortunately for poor diddums Justin, we already know what he's like.

A court heard in October that not only did he cheat on his wife and leave her and their two young children for PR worker Anna Larke, but after moving in with the recovering alcoholic he began a campaign of abuse which can be described only as horrifying.

She said he told her what to wear, how to walk, slapped her, spat at her, pulled her around by her hair and made a list of her former sexual experiences in a Pukka pad. She taped some of his foul-mouthed rants, which became the only bit of her testimony he did not deny.

The wife he left behind gave evidence that he was gentle and generous, and his friends said he was shy, polite and professional. Only domestic violence by its nature happens not in front of friends but between two people behind closed doors, and it's often a surprise to the people who know them that it went on at all.

When I told friends it had been happening to me, they said: "But you're so strong-minded!" And I replied: "Yes, that's why I stayed."

The most damaging part of domestic abuse is being emotionally terrorised by the person you love most, until you modify your behaviour in the hope of avoiding further conflict. Eventually you become a shadow of yourself, and no matter how quickly you get out of that situation it can take years to rebuild your character and self-belief. A bone heals in a few weeks; hearts take longer.

Press Association Justin Lee Collins
Shamed: But Collins refused to accept the blame after his conviction

During the case Collins insisted: "I do not need anger management." Afterwards he disputed Anna's version of events and added: "I will never accept the allegation that I am violent or an abuser."

He was found guilty of just one charge of harassing Anna and putting her in fear of violence on two occasions, and got a sentence of 140 hours community service which DV charity Refuge UK said was "derisory" and Anna's family blamed on his celebrity status.

And that, more than anything else, is why we're now faced with the possibility of him resurrecting his career in Big Brother.

They're never going to pay £100,000 for him but television is not renowned for being particularly tough upon misbehaving presenters and it's hardly surprising Channel 5 would want a controversial housemate to boost ratings.

Considering Collins seems incapable of accepting, or apologising for the fear he visited upon a vulnerable woman who loved him it's not shocking either that he might think he has a right to continue wurzelling all over our televisions or that anyone might want to watch him. That kind of crass insensitivity is par for the course.

No, the issue is that sentence. Those 140 hours which he spent in part wearing a beanie while working his hours at a private storage company.

Mirrorpix Justin Lee Collins pictured at the train station having a good laugh with his legal team following the conclusion of his harassment trial at St Albans crown Court
All smiles: Justin Lee Collins laughs with his legal team at the conclusion of his case

Treating abuse as though it is a silly row in the street rather than reacting with the requisite social and judicial anger is why, in the 21st century, one in four women and one in six men are still treated in that way at some point in their lives.

Ignoring, dismissing, or belittling the damage that is done by one person to another stops victims coming forward and encourages abusers to carry on telling themselves it's someone else's fault, and it means that people like me and Anna and thousands of others seriously believe they cannot ask for, get, any help.

Sentences as light as that for crimes as damaging as this one create an attitude in the judiciary, the police, and the public in general that firstly Anna was upset over nothing, secondly that it might have been six of one and half a dozen of the other, and thirdly that even if he did all that she accused him of it doesn't really matter.

Had Collins been given a tougher sentence - a few weeks' inside, maybe, or at the least a few months' work with a domestic violence charity and some court-ordered psychiatry - perhaps the bosses at Channel 5 would also take his crimes seriously enough not to subject us again to his antics.

Hertfordshire Police Justin Lee Collins
Mug: The official police handout of Justin Lee Collins

With a stronger sentence he would still be free to go on Big Brother after Christmas, but it would be more palatable to watch him clowning around if the courts had taken his offence as seriously as the rest of us do.

On the plus side if it happens he will be locked away, and there is a reasonable chance that Big Brother will make HIM feel like a fat whore, make HIM sleep next to someone he's terrified of and force HIM to recount things he'd rather forget, even if it is for just a fortnight.

He could have a mental breakdown on screen, like Vanessa Feltz or Les Dennis. He might have a racist outburst like Jade Goody and make himself even more reviled than he is now. Big Brother could dangle salvation before him and then righteously destroy what's left of his career, before the final indignity of forcing a broken man to be interviewed by Brian Dowling.

But while that might be pleasing it would make us like him - and there are too many people like him in the world already.

Let him disappear, but don't let him on my telly.


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