It was all just a pretty minor mishap

Justin Sebik

It emerged after he was evicted from the show that he had been arrested twice previously, for assault and theft, although all charges were dropped.

He has pleaded his innocence on this latest accusation, but a police report claims: "[Sebik] choked her and threw her on the ground, causing her to fracture her ankle."

Mr Sebik told the Jersey Journal of Jersey City that the woman had been "punching me all over the place" after he tried to break up with her.

"She goes for a shot at the back of my head and misses. So she goes down and hurts her ankle, I guess. It was all just a pretty minor mishap."

Intimidation

He said he was only joking during the Big Brother incident, which occurred in July while he was kissing another contestant.

He pulled the knife and was heard to say: "Hang on, I'm going to slash your throat. Would you get mad if I just killed you?"

She laughed, and they resumed kissing.

However the CBS programme's producers decided to throw him out, having warned him previously about intimidating other contestants.

The second series of the US Big Brother saw 12 strangers living together for the chance to win $500,000 (�355,300).