TV presenter Leslie weeps as jury clear him of assault
Relief as he’s found not guilty
FORMER Blue Peter presenter John Leslie choked back tears yesterday as he was cleared of groping a woman at a party.
Leslie, 55, rubbed his eyes and nodded thanks to the jury who acquitted him after just 23 minutes’ deliberation.
As he left the dock he hugged his father Les Stott who attended every day of his son’s week- long trial.
The former TV star had been accused of grabbing the woman’s breasts with both hands moments after they met at the celebrity Christmas bash.
She claimed he laughed in her face and went off to the bar without saying a word. Leslie described the allegation of sexual assault as “crazy” and “ludicrous”. He told jurors he could not even remember being at the function in London’s Soho in 2008.
“I would not have touched her like some mannequin and walked off,” he said.
It was the second time Leslie had walked free from Southwark Crown Court in south London.
In 2003, he was cleared when two charges of indecent assault made by a woman were dropped.
The court also heard he was arrested and interviewed by police in 2008 regarding an allegation of rape and indecent assault said to have happened in 1995. But there no further action was taken.
Leslie told the jury he had been portrayed as an “aggressive, sexual monster” by sections of the media but insisted he would never sexually assault a woman. He told how in 2002 he was wrongly identified on TV as an unnamed alleged rapist in an autobiography by former girlfriend Ulrika Jonsson. Presenter Matthew Wright later apologised, saying he named him in error. Ms Jonsson has never made any complaint to police.
Leslie, from Edinburgh, described the fall- out as “Armageddon”. He had become reclusive, paranoid, depressed and suicidal amid the allegation. “I lost everything.”
During the trial he was supported by stars Anthea Turner, Diane-Louise Jordan and Yvette Fielding along with former This Morning cohost Fern Britton.