John Leslie is accused of groping woman 11 years ago
But his lawyer tells court that ‘victim’ could be lying
‘Brief sexual touching’
FORMER television presenter John Leslie has denied groping a woman at a party more than a decade ago.
The 54-year-old is accused of sexually touching his alleged victim, then 30, over her clothing in London.
The incident is alleged to have taken place in Greek Street, Soho, central London, on December 5, 2008.
The former Blue Peter and This Morning presenter arrived at Westminster Magistrates’ Court yesterday wearing sun glasses, a dark grey suit, a white shirt and striped tie.
Jocelyn Ledward, prosecuting, said: ‘It is a simple allegation of a brief sexual touching over clothing.’
Leslie, from Edinburgh, formally denied the allegation and elected to go to a trial at Crown Court.
Defence lawyer Grant Ambridge said: ‘It is disputed that the offence took place, she is either mistaken, lying or other issues which we will develop in the Crown Court as to why or why not she may have said these things at the time.’
Leslie denies one count of sexual assault and was bailed by Chief Magistrate Emma Arbuthnot ahead of a plea and trial preparation hearing on August 22 at Southwark Crown Court.
The former presenter, whose real name is John Stott, was one of the most popular personalities on daytime television.
Leslie, the son of a newsagent, rose to fame in the late 1980s, fronting Blue Peter from 1989 until 1994 alongside Caron Keating, Yvette Fielding and Anthea Turner.
He joined the ITV This Morning team in 1999, presenting the show on Fridays with Fern Britton, and in 2001 they replaced hosts Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan.
A year later Leslie left the show to present the first series of Survivor. He also fronted the Wheel of Fortune game show, taking over from entertainer Bradley Walsh in 1998 and continuing the role for three years.
During an interview in 2015, Leslie disclosed that he earned £10,000 a week for Wheel of Fortune at its height.
With the addition of his salary for working on This Morning, he was earning £350,000 a year.
But on leaving the game show his career stalled and he lost money on the sale of a house he had built for £3.5million in London’s Richmond Park before the 2008 credit crunch. The fading star returned to Edinburgh to be near his parents, buying a £110,000 house next door.
In 2004, to make ends meet, he appeared as Mr Wickham in a touring stage version of Pride and Prejudice.
In 2012 he returned to working as a radio DJ with 98.8 Castle FM before joining the Scottish Bauer Radio network in 2014.
He has also been working as a property developer in Edinburgh.
During his career, the 6ft 4in presenter was linked with various glamorous women from Catherine Zeta-Jones to Abi Titmuss. He also admitted heavy cocaine use.
Last year he was reportedly offered a six-figure sum to appear on Celebrity Big Brother but turned down the deal at the eleventh hour.