John Leslie threatens to sue police after sex assault acquittal

Presenter John Leslie may sue police after sex assault acquittal.

The former Blue Peter host said that he felt like he’d ‘lost a year of my life’ after a woman on her hen do accused the star of groping her.

She alleged that the ex-This Morning presenter danced with her and put his hands down the back of her trousers.

He described it as one of the worst experiences of his life and added that Edinburgh police didn’t appear interested in establishing the facts and even looking at the CCTV footage of said incident.

The woman described in court that Leslie committed the assault in the Atik nightclub in Edinburgh during June of 2017.

However, a two-day trial at the Edinburgh Sheriff Court saw him acquitted of the charge as nothing could be proven.

After being told he was free to leave, Leslie told The Mail on Sunday: ‘I lost dignity, respect, and I’m unemployable again, even though I was acquitted.’

He continued: ‘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.’

Leslie even vowed to take the matter further and hinted that he may sue the police: ‘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.’

The star says that Scottish police didn’t do their jobs properly and felt the arrest and trial was needless when they could’ve checked the CCTV video: ‘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 interest in obtaining the footage.’

Furthermore, Leslie clarified how two videos from varying angles show ‘the young woman dancing quite happily with me’ and that ‘at no point does anything inappropriate happen.’

He blames police for incorrectly taking the charge to court and smearing his name further: ‘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.’

And it was suggested that the woman made a false claim based on who he was, and nothing more: ‘I’m 100% convinced the allegation would not have been made if it wasn’t me.’

Leslie also believes that the police ‘were pretty selective in their evidence-gathering’ and how they were all too eager to arrest him. ‘It wasn’t so much a rush to charge me, but a stampede,’ he said.

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