Leslie in new police quiz over claims he assaulted a girl of 22
FORMER television star John Leslie has been questioned by police in connection with a sexual attack on a 22-year-old woman.
It is claimed the woman was attacked late Thursday night or early Friday morning.
Leslie had been presenting a prize at the Radio Forth Awards in Edinburgh on Thursday, alongside stars including Stevie McCrorie.
Many of the guests went to an after-party at nightclub Lulu in George Street. Howback ever, it is not known if Leslie attended the event.
The 50-year-old, who was cleared of two sexual assaults in 2003, did not present his daily radio show on Friday.
Police were at his house in Morningside on Saturday and were spotted leaving with a number of evidence bags around 7.30pm.
It is believed that the father of one was being questioned by police while they searched his home. He was seen arriving home at around 10.30pm on Saturday.
Yesterday, Leslie barricaded himself into his two-storey home, pushing wheelie bins up against his gate. His curtains remained closed throughout the day.
Last night a Police Scotland spokesman said: ‘Police in Edinburgh are investigating a report of a sexual assault of a 22-year-old woman, which took place between the evening of Thursday, November 19 and the morning of Friday, November 20 in Edinburgh. Inquiries are currently ongoing.’
Leslie has been presenting a daily afternoon show on local radio station Forth 2. His Friday show was covered by the station’s weekend presenter John Collins.
A spokesman for Forth 2’s parent company Bauer Media said it would not comment on the reports.
The former daytime TV presenter has been dogged for more than a decade by previous claims of sexual assault and rape, despite being cleared of all of them.
Leslie’s television career came crashing down in 2002 after Swedish TV presenter Ulrika Jonsson wrote in her autobiography Honest that she was raped by ‘an acquaintance’ when she was 19.
Channel 5’s Matthew Wright accidentally named Leslie as the suspect.
The Swedish presenter has refused to confirm the name of the person responsible.
Leslie has always denied the allegations. In 2003, he was accused of indecently assaulting a 23-year-old actress in 1997. However, he was cleared of all charges and was told he could leave without a stain on his character.
Speaking after the court case, Leslie said he had ‘been to hell and back’ after the allegations were made against him. He added: ‘We always believed justice would prevail and the truth would come out.’
Before the accusations he had a successful television career working on programmes such as Blue Peter and Wheel of Fortune.
He was dropped from his £200,000-a-year job presenting This Morning after a newspaper claimed he had taken cocaine. The TV host was hit with further scandal when a sex tape of him and then girl- friend Abi Titmuss and another woman appeared online.
Then in 2008 he was again accused of an alleged rape but no charges were brought.
After moving back to Edinburgh, Leslie worked in property for a while, before working alongside his brother, Grant Stott, at Radio Forth.
He was also employed at Cav nightclub in Edinburgh as a DJ in its VIP area. Leslie had previously worked at the club as a teenager.
In an interview last month, he said that he had spent years rebuilding his life after going from earning hundreds of thousands of pounds a year to making ‘not a single penny’.
Leslie said: ‘I lost everything overnight. ITV said I’d forfeited the right to have my contract paid up and the whole thing was a mess. Everything around me was on fire and it was a hell of a place to be – and money just wasn’t at the top of my list of considerations.’
He added: ‘I’ve been rebuilding my life. I couldn’t get a job for four years.’
He has one daughter with his ex-partner Rachel Bentley.
‘The whole thing was a mess’
‘I lost everything’