DOWN-AND-OUT Robbie Hance says X Factor bosses refused to give him just £15 – despite his warning that he would die without food or shelter.
Robbie — who impressed judges with his version of Damien Rice’s Coconut Skins in his first audition — says he contacted the team after four months on the street.
But he claims he was told the show couldn’t fork out for a meal or a cheap hostel for the night because they would risk being accused of favouritism
towards him.
Robbie said: “I was freezing cold and malnourished. I had been sleeping in parks and building sites and living on half a sandwich a day from one of the charity centres.
“I asked for £15 but I’d have taken anything for food. But my key worker — assigned before my first filmed audition — told me she couldn’t help because it wouldn’t be fair on the other contestants on the show.
“She said it would be favouritism. So I told her: ‘If you don’t help me now, I won’t make it to boot camp in Liverpool — I’ll be dead.’ The answer was
still no.
“Every single time I asked for help the answer was the same, so I stopped asking.”
Robbie — who has been homeless for six years after being put in care as a child — was entered for the ITV contest by a girlfriend he later split from.
In his first appearance, above left, he dazzled the judges, with Tulisa Contostavlos saying: “I think you need to realise the potential you have and
how good you are.”
Louis Walsh added: “I don’t think you have had a break in life and you absolutely deserve that.” Last weekend, viewers saw the troubled singer put
down his mike and storm off stage after he appeared to forget his words, above right.
But Robbie now claims he DID know the track lyrics but didn’t sing them because voices in his head told him he wasn’t good enough.
He said: “I am sure I only made it through to boot camp because I told the crew I was homeless. That’s all anyone ever spoke to me about.
“No matter how badly my auditions went, they kept putting me through.
“In the four weeks between my audition and boot camp, my brain battered me about whether I should go back when someone else might deserve my place more.
“When I finally stepped on stage with Adam Burridge and Jake Quickenden, all I could hear was a voice telling me — ‘You don’t deserve this.’
“I knew the words of the song, but couldn’t sing them. I was sick of my stupid back story. So I walked out. But I’m sorry I let Adam and Jake down.”
Robbie — arrested twice in 2009 after separate incidents of theft and property damage — is now back in London and sleeping rough. But he says the hopes he had of getting a job have been smashed by his X Factor appearance.
He said: “I’ve always had jobs for a few weeks at a time. It was mainly bar work, because it’s the easiest to get.
“But now I can’t even do that. Thanks to X Factor everyone recognises me as a homeless thief and they won’t touch me with a barge pole.
“But I’d rather be homeless than have anything more to do with X Factor.”
A show spokesman said: “While the contestants are in our care we enforce a fair and consistent policy on accommodation, travel and sustenance.
“The welfare of the contestants is always our priority.
“The judges decide which acts are put through to boot camp based on the strength of their performance and Robbie received four yeses.”
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