John Leslie ‘put hand down woman’s trousers on hen do’
‘One of the toughest years of my life’
FORMER TV presenter John Leslie put his hand down a woman’s trousers and touched her bare bottom as they danced during her hen night, a court heard yesterday.
She told jurors that while she was dancing with friends and members of a stag party at a nightclub Leslie, 53, approached her and said: ‘Be careful, you’re getting married.’
She said she thought the former Blue Peter presenter was being ‘protective’ and suggested they dance together.
Giving evidence from behind a screen, the 27-year-old bank worker broke down as she relived the alleged sexual assault. ‘We’d been going in circles, then he pulled me closer,’ she said. ‘I did feel uncomfortable but thought I was maybe reading too much into it.’
She said she gave her friend ‘a look’ to make her aware she was uncomfortable, adding: ‘After that I felt his hand go down my trousers at the back. I didn’t know how to react.’ Asked to describe where Leslie touched her, she said: ‘He touched my bottom, touching flesh. It happened so quickly.
‘I shot my friend another look. She said it was a look that she’ll never forget. I knew I needed to be out of that situation.’
She told the court that once her friend pulled her away she danced briefly with her hen party to ‘pretend it hadn’t happened’.
‘But then I got really upset so moved to the booth,’ she added.
The court heard she and a friend told a female bouncer what had happened and police were called.
The woman told Edinburgh Sheriff Court that when she and her friends entered the club earlier that evening last June she recognised Leslie, who also presented the ITV shows Wheel of Fortune and This Morning in the 1990s.
She said she spoke to him about football, some of his ex-girlfriends and speculation that he could soon be on TV in Celebrity Big Brother.
The alleged sexual assault at Edinburgh’s Atik nightclub took place after he approached her again later that night.
Presenting the case for the prosecution, fiscal depute Fiona Nairn asked her how she felt now, and the woman said: ‘It’s been one of the toughest years of my life when it should have been the happiest.
‘I got married two weeks later and I don’t know how my husband has lived with me. It has had an impact on my relationship with him and on my family.’ She added she had been signed off work and prescribed anti-anxiety pills.
Appearing under his real name John Stott, Leslie denies sexual assault by putting his hand under the woman’s clothing – she was also wearing a tutu – and touching her bare bottom.
CCTV footage of the pair danc- ing was played to the court, and reviewing it with the woman, defence lawyer Derek Ogg QC said: ‘ We don’t see a hand going under a tutu or trousers or coming out of trousers.’
The woman cried and said: ‘I don’t know why anyone would think I made this up. I have nothing to gain from it.’
Mr Ogg put it to her that the CCTV showed the dance with Leslie ended ‘voluntarily’ rather than with a friend’s intervention. She said: ‘That’s not how I see it.’
She told Mr Ogg she had been ‘too drunk to drive, but was not out of control’.
Commenting on footage in which she did not appear upset, she said: ‘I wouldn’t say he was a gentleman but he was pleasant enough’.
Asked by Mr Ogg why she had not raised the alarm straight after the alleged attack, she replied: ‘I was shocked. I didn’t know how to react. I wanted the ground to swallow me up.’ The trial continues.