FORMER Big Brother winner Brian Belo has quit the show saying he felt "degraded" following a row with fellow returning contestant Helen Wood.

Belo, who triumphed in 2007 when he picked up almost two thirds of the votes in the final, climbed over the garden wall to escape barely a week after he was brought back to the house with Wood, from Bolton, and another former star, Nikki Grahame. 

The row, which resulted in Wood being given a formal warning, saw Belo describe her as having "no principles, morals or self-respect" while she taunted him: " Straitjackets in the store room. Psycho."

 Speaking in the diary room after the row, he said: "I feel like I'm being ganged up on. I don't want to cry. I've tried to keep away from there. I shouldn't have come back here. This is really hard. I feel like I'm living in hell. I'm defeated. I'm getting a barrage of abuse." 

Afterwards he told Grahame: "I just feel degraded," before quitting the Channel 5 show.

Wood won the last series of the show but caused controversy with her behaviour. 

Communications watchdog Ofcom said it received 3,784 complaints about that series, with many about her behaviour and allegations of bullying.