STAN Collymore`s first love told last night how she spent four years living in fear, waiting for the next time he would explode and beat her up.
"He is nothing more than a common bully," said Lotta Farley. "He would be OK most of the time, but then he just loses it and lashes out. I don`t think he realises what he`s doing."
Lotta spoke as Ulrika Jonsson was still recovering from the physical and emotional scars after ex-England football star Collymore kicked and punched her in front of hundreds of shocked Scottish World Cup fans in a Paris pub.
"I saw what he did to Ulrika and honestly, it didn`t surprise me," said 25-year-old Lotta. "I grew to fear Stan. He was so sullen and unpredictable, like a volcano waiting to blow.
"I have been physically attacked... slapped. And it happened more than once.
"I have not spoken about it before as it`s not the sort of thing you like to mention. I felt ashamed that I stayed with him so long. Stan beat and verbally assaulted me during our four years together."
Lotta thinks every woman should give Collymore a wide berth. "He was always shouting at me," she said. "It would be over something trivial, like me being late.
"But he took it personally. And if things weren`t going right for him, then I had to look out.
"He would get right in my face and yell at the top of his voice. It was very frightening."
And when the row became heated, Collymore would resort to "slapping" her.
Lotta, who lives with her Finnish mother in Croydon, South London, started dating Collymore seven years ago when he was playing in the reserves for Crystal Palace.
They met on a train. The attraction was instant. "Stan is 6ft 3in and he stood head and shoulders above everybody else," said Lotta. "I also thought he was funny and very intelligent.
"I was only 18 at the time and he was my first boyfriend. I was very much in love." When Collymore was transferred to Nottingham Forest Lotta moved with him into a six-bedroom house in Cannock. But she found life in the Midlands lonely and depressing.
"Stan was always the centre of attention. He loved the glamour, and he didn`t seem to realise how hard it was for me.
"The people don`t take to strangers easily. I found it very hard to cope and that put an extra strain on our relationship."
"Stan is very aloof - some say arrogant - and I just couldn`t break through. He used to take delight in saying, `you don`t know me. I`m too complex for you to work out`. It was like he was proud of it." After 14 months the couple split, but Collymore was soon begging her to resume their relationship.
And in July 1995, he hit the jackpot when he moved to Liverpool for a then record fee of pounds 8.5 million. Collymore was earning pounds 14,000 a week and he splashed out pounds 3,000 on an "engagement" ring for Lotta.
He also bought her a Volkswagen Golf with the personalised number plates N10 LKF, after his number 10 shirt and Lotta`s initials.
"I never wore the ring" she revealed. "I told Stan I wasn`t sure about being engaged. He begged me to marry him - but I feared it would be a mistake. I wanted to be sure.
"And the more he became rich and famous, the more our relationship fell apart. The rows got worse with Stan exploding in anger.
"He couldn`t control himself and would lash out. He was always sorry, but the damage was done."
The relationship finally ended in November 1995 when Collymore demanded the return of the ring and the car. "I couldn`t believe it, but I suppose that sums him up," said Lotta who is now engaged.
Lotta had kept Collymore`s vicious streak from her businessman father Alan Farley. And he was outraged when he found out.
"If I`d thought for a moment he had laid a finger on Lotta I would personally have made sure he never played football again.
"To hit a woman is lower than the low. I think the man is a disgrace."
Ulrika is being helped through her nightmare week by comedy promoter Paul Roberts, who worked with her on the stage version of TV`s Shooting Stars.
Friends say he is hoping to cheer Ulrika up by taking her to Marseilles to see England`s match against Tunisia tomorrow. "He has been a source of strength," said one friend.
And amazingly one girl is still standing by the disgraced Aston Villa footballer.
Estelle Williams, 25, who runs a beauty salon, has been in constant touch with Collymore since the bar-room brawl.