John Leslie (television presenter)
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John Leslie (born Leslie John Stott on February 22, 1965) is a Scottish former television presenter, best known as a presenter of BBC One's Blue Peter and ITV's This Morning. He also presented the ITV hit gameshow Wheel of Fortune and he was the roving reporter for the first series of the UK version of Survivor. During 1988 he became a presenter for Music Box's show Formula One, shown on London-based pan-European satellite channel Super Channel.
Leslie played in goal for the Scottish team in the Celebrity World Cup Soccer Six tournament, which took place on the 14 May 2006 at Birmingham City Football Club.
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[edit] Personal life
Leslie was born in Edinburgh, and is the brother of Grant Stott, a presenter on STV's Scotsport, and on 97.3 Forth One. Leslie is a former boyfriend of Catherine Zeta-Jones and Abi Titmuss. He is also a supporter of Hibernian FC.
[edit] Rape allegation
In October 2002, Ulrika Jonsson said in her autobiography that a television presenter had indecently assaulted her. Amid media speculation, Matthew Wright, a one time columnist for the tabloid newspaper Daily Mirror, disclosed - supposedly by accident - on his television show The Wright Stuff, that Leslie was the alleged person. Jonsson refused to tell the public or the police whether the correct person had been named. As a result of the publicity, several other women made accusations relating to indecent assault by Leslie, who was arrested, and charged with assaulting a woman twice between 25 May and 28 May 1997. He was never charged with offences against Jonsson. The police dropped the charge against Leslie on 31 July 2003, after the complainant brought additional information to the attention of the prosecution service. The information, which was alluded to at the time in the Daily Express, is believed to have been a letter the complainant wrote to a friend in 1997 detailing the Leslie assault as well as a bad sexual experience she had had at an earlier time. The case was withdrawn because the complainant had not disclosed the earlier experience when she reported the alleged assault by John Leslie. On the court steps after his clearing, Leslie said that he had 'been to hell and back' and that he had 'maintained [his] innocence throughout'. Leslie's career never recovered, although he and Wright did make light of the situation by appearing together in the video for Bo' Selecta's Christmas 2003 single, "Proper Crimbo".
[edit] References
- Biography from the BBC's I Love Blue Peter website
- BBC News report on charges being dropped
- BBC News report on Matthew Wright's accidental naming of Leslie
[edit] External links
| Preceded by Mark Curry |
Blue Peter Presenter No. 18 1989-94 |
Succeeded by Tim Vincent |
| Preceded by Bradley Walsh |
Host of Wheel of Fortune 1998-2001 |
Succeeded by Paul Hendy |
| Preceded by Coleen Nolan and Twiggy |
Host of This Morning with Fern Britton 2001-2002 |
Succeeded by Phillip Schofield |
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