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1-11-2002 Scotsman Jonsson hints that Leslie was attacker By Gethin Chamberlain ULRIKA Jonsson yesterday ducked the opportunity to clear the name of the sacked ITV star John Leslie as she was repeatedly questioned about her allegations of date rape against an unnamed television presenter. Instead, Jonsson, 35, dropped the strongest hint yet that Leslie was the man she referred to in her newly-published autobiography. Speaking at the Festival Theatre, in Edinburgh, Leslie's home town, at an event organised to promote the book, Jonsson told a small, paying audience she did not believe that it would be right to go to the police with her claims 15 years after the alleged incident, although she said if it had happened today she would report it. Although the host, Janice Forsyth, brought up John Leslie's name several times during a lengthy conversation about the claims, the Swede refused to clear his name. "I have heard this person's name being brought up by other people mentioning situations very similar to mine. I have been horrified. For all these years I thought I was the only person," she said. Dressed in a black polo-neck and knee-length skirt with black boots and with her blonde hair pulled back severely into a pony tail, the former weather girl insisted that her intention had never been to identify the man involved, even though she had disclosed that he was a television presenter at the time. "I have never named the person involved. My intention was not to identify this person," Jonsson said. "I feel it is definitely unfair. I can't name a person where I have no proof. I won't confirm the name of my aggressor." She said her lawyers had been through the book to take out any references to the man which would potentially reveal his identity. "He was a television presenter at the time. He could be a plumber or an electrician now," she said. "The only thing I know is that I have only mentioned this person's name to two or three people ... my mother, a close friend and my agent." She said her mother had urged her to do something about it at the time of the attack but she had lacked confidence. "I felt very strongly that if I should have done anything about reporting the crime I should have done it 15 years ago. I neither had the courage nor the belief in myself that anyone else would believe what I had to say at the time. I was very frightened." But she said if such an incident occurred today, she would report it to the police. "If this had happened to me yesterday or today, I would go to the police straight away. I would like to think I could now feel more confident about having my words heard." Jonsson's account of her alleged rape - coupled with the accidental disclosure of Leslie's name by another television presenter - prompted a string of other women to come forward to make allegations against Leslie which ultimately led to his dismissal from ITV's This Morning show on Wednesday. In an interview which lasted over an hour, Jonsson talked in depth about her personal problems, the breakdown of her marriage, her infidelity and her fight against depression. Describing herself as her own fiercest critic, she said there were times when she thought of herself as "a s**t person" and, referring to her marriage breakdown, she added: "I obviously had a lot of demons to confront." Publication of Jonsson's book, Honest, has heaped further embarrassment onto the heads of many of her former lovers, including the England football coach, Sven Goran Eriksson, and the former Liverpool and Aston Villa footballer, Stan Collymore. And yesterday, the star of the television programmes Dog Eat Dog and Shooting Stars could not resist taking another swipe at the men she felt had failed to come up to her expectations. She recalled how Collymore had locked her out of the house in her underwear on the eve of the Eurovision Song Contest, but despite describing him in print as a "monster" she conceded: "I was as responsible for staying in the relationship as he was for raising his feet to my head." Jonsson dismissed suggestions that her relationship with Eriksson had been a publicity stunt dreamed up to promote her book sales. "I believed he was very, very good for me, a calm man, a very bright man," she said. But she criticised her former lover for allowing the media spotlight to fall on the perceived rivalry between Jonsson and his long-term girlfriend, Nancy Dell'Olio. "He left me to fight the public battles and I don't think that was the right thing to do. I felt that the story became about her and me and he rather disappeared out of the picture. I felt these were not the actions of a strong man of conviction." And Jonsson could not resist a sly dig at the man who distanced himself from her when news of their affair became public, suggesting that he did not measure up to lovers such as her co-Gladiators star Hunter, whose physical attributes she had earlier praised: "He was the total opposite of Hunter - in so many ways," she said. Despite the publicity which Jonsson's book has provoked, only just over 100 people were prepared to pay £4 for a ticket to hear her speak in the 1,800 seat venue, and many of those were journalists. But that section of the audience which did not have a professional interest in proceedings appeared to include at least two supporters of John Leslie. The men, who later described themselves as Hibernian fans, heckled Jonsson, one demanding to know what she thought of Leslie's sacking and the other asking if she intended to go to last night's UEFA Cup match between Celtic and Blackburn Rovers, which Eriksson was expected to attend.
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................................................................................................................. Copyright ©2004 Gethin Chamberlain. All rights reserved. |
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