Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
TV LESLIE IN TEARS AS HE IS CLEARED
Not guilty of 2008 party grope claim
TV star John Leslie wept in the dock yesterday as he was cleared of groping a woman at a 2008 party.
The former Blue Peter host walked free after a jury found him not guilty following just 25 minutes of deliberation.
Mr Leslie banged his forehead on the glass of the dock upon hearing the verdict, then put his hand over his face and cried.
The 55-year-old’s father, Les, burst into tears in the public gallery and they hugged as he left the dock.
A woman had told Southwark crown court that Mr Leslie grabbed her breasts and gave a “hearty laugh” when she introduced himself in a West End bar 12 years ago. Witnesses testified that they were told about the alleged incident but did not see it.
Mr Leslie insisted “it was not in his nature” to touch women inappropriately.
He also said he was “paranoid” after previously being wrongly identified as the unnamed TV presenter that Ulrika Jonsson claimed had raped her in an autobiography released in 2002.
And Fern Britton, Anthea Turner, Yvette Fielding and Diane-louise Jordan, TV colleagues from This Morning and Blue Peter, all gave character statements, calling him a “gentleman”.
Gudrun Young, for Mr Leslie, had told the court her client was the victim of “trial by media” and the alleged victim’s account was riddled with inconsistencies.
She told jurors: “If you knew anything about him, I would suggest the two things you would have talked about are Blue Peter and sexual impropriety of some sort since 2002.
“Yet he is, and remains, a man of good character. No convictions, no cautions.
“It has never been established that he has done anything wrong to anybody.”
She branded his treatment a “media witch hunt”, adding: “His career ruined, his l i f e b l i g h t e d b y c o mpl e t e ly unfounded allegations.”
Turning to th e alleged victim’s evidence, she said: “There were some very odd things in the account that she gave. Some bits that didn’t really make sense and some bits that didn’t match up to other evidence.
“She was changing, adapting, massaging her evidence to account for the bizarre fact that she says this man went up in full view of others to commit this brazen sexual assault but no one seems to have seen it.”
Speaking about the night in December 2008 at an earlier hearing, Mr Leslie said: “I have no idea who [the alleged victim] is.
“The idea I would do that is just crazy, especially the way I was and everything
that had been going on. I was paranoid [after previous allegations]. I was aware, conscious.
“To go up to a total stranger and just do that would be ludicrous and never would have happened. I can’t imagine why she thought it would’ve happened.
“I would’ve said hello but not touched her and walked off. It’s not me.” He also said: “It’s not a backward industr y. We treat women fairly. People d o n’ t g o a r o u n d assaulting women. “It’s just not done. You wouldn’t let it happen. It’s not allowed. It’s not something people would condone or allow.
“People wouldn’t watch it and let it happen.
“If I had seen it I wouldn’t have let it happen. I would never do such a thing.” ‘RUINED’ Ex-blue Peter star Leslie
He has been made to look, in the press, like some sort of monster LAWYER GUDRUN YOUNG ON ‘WITCH HUNT’ ON STAR