Nasty Nick: Disgraced, exposed and on the verge of a fortune

Disgraced, exposed, humiliated and on the verge of a small fortune, the Big Brother outcast Nick Bateman emerged blinking and nervous into his first press conference yesterday.

Disgraced, exposed, humiliated and on the verge of a small fortune, the Big Brother outcast Nick Bateman emerged blinking and nervous into his first press conference yesterday.

The range of questions showed how the manipulative 33-year-old stockbroker had, over 32 days, fascinated all sections of society. "How do you feel about the image you portrayed of a City operator?" asked the Financial Times. "Will you be able to look Caroline in the face again?" inquired Radio 1. "Why did you cheat and lie?" asked journalists from France and the United States.

Mr Bateman, tired but secure in the knowledge that the publicist Max Clifford was predicting £1m earnings from outlets ranging from television commercials to playing pantomime villains, attempted to come to terms with his international celebrity. Branded by some newspapers "the most hated man in Britain", he was disqualified from the show for attempting to influence the voting on who is evicted each week. He had also smuggled a pencil and paper into the sealed-off house.

The last person left in the house will win £70,000.

The episode that saw him confronted by his housemates won the highest audience for a Channel 4 show this year, with 5.5 million viewers.

At the press conference in London, Mr Bateman, seemingly still in character as a charming, scrupulously polite and endearing villain, declared: "I haven't committed murder. I haven't mugged somebody. It was a very small error.

"I'm just an ordinary guy who took part in a very unusual experiment under a lot of scrutiny and pressure. I don't think being labelled the most hated man attaches to me. I was just taking part in a game show."

Television executives will have nervously taken note of one of Mr Bateman's comments. His lying and cheating was part of playing the game; it was definitely not for the money. He explained: "I don't think the £70,000 is relevant. £70,000 doesn't mean a lot these days. It it were half a million pounds, then perhaps."