A DEAF man has claimed he was unfairly discriminated against because of his disability at a Big Brother audition on Saturday.

Paul Cripps, 25, of Baker's Arms, Leyton, queued for more than four hours with thousands of other people at the ExCel Centre, in the Docklands, hoping to take part in the Channel 4 show.

Mr Cripps, who teaches sign language, said: "I finally got in to the auditions with ten other people and they asked me questions, but I told them I was deaf.

"A girl let the judge know I was deaf and I was given a paper and pen. I started feeling small.

"The man doing the auditions talked too fast and I could not understand him. I asked him to write his questions down.

"But he refused to write and wanted me to write an answer."

At the end, Mr Cripps learned that he had not been successful. He said: "I was told I could not go through. The judge made a gesture to show I was deaf, which made me lose my confidence."

Mr Cripps said it was not explained to him exactly why his disability would prevent him from progressing.

He added that he was pushed and bullied by people in the queue because of his deafness and that many people were drinking alcohol and taking illegal drugs while they were waiting.

Before the audition he contacted Channel 4 using the telephone system for deaf people, TypeTalk, but had difficulty getting through to anyone.

He now plans to seek advice because he believes Endemol, the production company behind the Channel 4 show, has contravened the Disability Discrimination Act, which prohibits service providers from discriminating against disabled people.

He said: "Big Brother has been running for seven series, and I thought why not get a deaf guy involved?' "I wanted to show people what my experience is like with sign language and I think Big Brother should be aware of what the deaf community is like."

A BIG Brother spokesman was unable to confirm whether Mr Cripps' version of events was true.

He acknowledged that it was difficult to know about every detail of every specific case when there were thousands of people at the auditions. He did not offer an apology on behalf of the programme to Mr Cripps.

He added: "Big Brother seeks applications from people from diverse backgrounds and welcomes applications from individuals with disabilities.

"We have a senior member of the team dedicated to assisting people with disabilities who is present throughout audition days. If disabled applicants make themselves known to the team then this person will be notified and will work with them to meet their needs."