I’m not an animal, says John Leslie
John Leslie hits out after being cleared of hen-night sex assault Officers ‘withheld key CCTV evidence proving innocence’ Now he’ll lodge formal complaint over inquiry
TELEVISION presenter John Leslie is to make a formal complaint against Police Scotland over its handling of sexual assault allegations against him.
The former Blue Peter, Wheel Of Fortune, Survivor and This Morning host was cleared last month of groping a bride-to-be during her hen party in a nightclub.
During the trial, Edinburgh Sheriff Court was shown CCTV footage of the 53-year-old celebrity dancing with the alleged victim.
She was asked to view the film and to identify the point at which Leslie was supposed to have put his hand down the back of her trousers, but she failed to do so.
In an exclusive interview, Leslie says it was clear from the outset that the footage proved no sexual assault ever took place. He says police were aware of the footage but were so determined to prosecute him because of his ‘fame’ that they failed to hand it over to prosecutors.
He believes Police Scotland effectively withheld evidence from prosecutors that would have stopped the case ever getting to trial. Leslie, who has had high-profile romances with stars such as Ulrika Jonsson, Catherine Zeta-Jones and nurse-turned glamour model Abi Titmuss, told The Scottish Mail on Sunday the case had left him ‘broken and vulnerable’.
Admitting his own role in his spectacular fall from grace during the 2000s, he revealed that cocaine was his downfall. He claims even his closest friends still jokingly call him ‘that disgraced John Leslie’ and says he has been receiving counselling from a therapist for the past six months.
But he insists he has never been a ‘marauding animal’ who takes advantage of women, adding: ‘I feel as if my heart has been ripped out by this latest case and it has been the worst experience of my life, by a country mile. I will be making a formal complaint to the police, but I also wouldn’t rule out a civil action.
‘I blame the police. At the very least I’d like an apology. I was detained and charged in the early hours of the morning over an incident in a public space in a nightclub that was covered by CCTV, yet the police showed no
‘I was trying to be a nice guy’
interest in obtaining the footage. Those films, taken from two different angles, show the young woman dancing quite happily with me. At no point does anything inappropriate happen.
‘Yet instead of dropping the matter or sending the videos to the fiscal’s office, the police simply sent a highly selective summary.
‘The woman was about to get married and was having a good time. I was trying to be a nice guy by dancing with her.
‘I’m 100 per cent convinced the allegation would not have been made if it wasn’t me. Once again, I’ve lost a year of my life, I lost dignity, respect and I’m unemployable again, even though I was acquitted.’
Leslie’s lawyer Mark Harrower claimed evidence of Leslie’s DNA inside the woman’s waistband had been overplayed by the police.
She had been asked to remove her own clothing without swabbing her skin, and officers knew that she had been holding hands with Leslie.
Police Scotland said yesterday: ‘All complaints will be assessed and investigated as appropriate.’