SHAMELESS star Jody Latham terrorised a former contestant of The Apprentice after accusing him of dating his ex-fiancee, a court heard.

The 33-year old actor star interrogated Adam Hosker on his front doorstep and hounded him with threatening phone calls and tweets after learning he had been meeting up with Sarah Byrne, it was said.

Latham – who played Lip Gallagher in the Channel 4 drama – had been engaged to 27-year old Sarah but they split in October last year following the birth of their child.

He became enraged when he found out she went to visit Hosker at his flat in Manchester ahead of going for a drink with him.

During a string of encounters, Latham turned up unannounced on Hosker's home demanding to know if he was dating Sarah, tweeted him saying: ''alright chubby face" and also phoned the former reality TV star saying: ''Meet me in 24 hours our it will end badly,'' it was claimed.

The actor who also appeared in Eastenders, Doctors and Holby City was later arrested and charged with harassment after Miss Byrne made a complaint.

IT company boss Hosker, now 34, who was famed for his spats with Katie Hopkins during Series 3 of The Apprentice in 2007 told Manchester JP’s court: ''I got a phone call from Jody saying I had to call him back or else. He told me I had to meet him within 24 hours or it would end badly. He said I had taken something away from him and that he would take something away from him.

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"His friend then came on the line and said he knew where I lived and if I didn't meet him he would come round and things would go badly. I tried to draw a line under it and I just wanted him to realise that nothing was going on.

"The phone call scared me. I sent a text message to Jody saying that I didn't want to meet him and I received no response. Then I started receiving late night phone calls which caused problems with the girl I was seeing.

"The whole thing made me feel very anxious. I would walk home from work or be sitting in the flat not knowing if something was going to happen. I went back to my family's house because I feared for my safety.''

Latham met Sarah – who also appeared in Shameleess – in 2008 during a wrap party for the show. They began dating in 2012 after he split up with former X Factor judge Tulisa Contostavlos.

Earlier this year he was banned from contacting her under the terms of a restraining order after he left her in fear with foul mouthed voicemail rants demanding he see their daughter.

He turned his attentions on Hosker in March.

Hosker added: " I was friends with Mr Latham's ex fiancé and she came round to my flat and we planned to go for a drink in town. But I looked out the window of my flat and saw Mr Latham was outside.

''Sarah saw him and went downstairs. I came to and saw what looked like an argument/ a conversation between Mr Latham and Sarah. Sarah then grabbed her child from the car and went back inside and I followed her.

"The child was in the back seat of the car. Sarah rang the taxi and left with the child. The following morning, I was going to a meeting with my boss and there was a knock at the door. I thought it might be my boss but it was in fact Mr Latham. I invited him in to have a conversation.

“He asked me a number of questions about Sarah and whether we were together etc.

"He was frantic and looked as if he was angry and upset. As Mr Latham was leaving he said not to tell anyone he had been there and this would be okay if I didn't say anything. I was pretty anxious to be honest, it just seemed very odd to me. It didn't seem like normal behaviour."

"I wanted to tell Jody that nothing was going on relationship wise. It was just a drink and nothing to worry about. I told Mr Latham I would not have any contact with Jody after that. I thought the issue had been resolved and I seized contact with Sarah from that point.

"It went quiet for a while until I started receiving abusive twitter messages telling me to direct message him or things would get sent over here.

''He then tweeted a picture of himself with my ex-girlfriend Maddy at the Alchemist in Manchester, which I found very strange. You could tell there was some kind of malice to it.”

Representing himself, Latham denied a charge of harassment and told the hearing: "When I went round to Adam's flat it had all been pre-arranged and Sarah had asked me to drop my daughter off. All the phone calls were initiated by Adam himself and I was simply answering them.

"Several people have access to my Twitter account and without the police finding the IP address of those tweets, there is nothing to prove that it was my twitter account.

"This is all just one man's word against another and there is no solid evidence to support Mr Hosker's statement. I have not made any calls to Mr Hosker and the only conversation we have had are during the calls he made to me.

''I never set out to cause any harm or trouble. This happened nine months ago now and I have not had any contact with Mr Hosker since."

Latham's career took off at the age of 12 when he appeared in youth theatre. He played the son of scrounger Frank Gallagher in Shameless from 2004 to 2008 whilst Sarah played wildchild Meena Karib from 2008 to 2009.

In EastEnders, Latham appeared as pimp Rob Grayson in a sex exploitation storyline. He has also starred in ITV's The Fixer and had a stint as a trainee chef in Gordon Ramsay's Hell's Kitchen.

Hosker was fired from The Apprentice amid controversy with claims of a "North–South" rift with the other contestants, particularly Katie Hopkins who cuttingly said his best friends were ''Mr Pinot and Mr Grigio.''

The case was adjourned until Thursday.

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