John Leslie denies rape allegation

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"Regrettably, as has happened in the past, the details of a private police inquiry have been leaked to the press and once again I face trial by media," he told reporters.

Leslie, 43, a former presenter of ITV's This Morning and BBC's Blue Peter, was cleared in 2003 of two indecent assaults on a women claimed to have taken place in 1997.

But the media coverage of the case destroyed his media career and he has worked since as a property developer.

In the latest case police are investigating an alleged sexual assault and rape of a woman in November 1995.

Leslie was arrested after voluntarily going to Teddington police station in west London on Monday evening, where he was interviewed for 30 minutes before being released on bail.

"I am accused of attacking a person 13 years ago. I do not even know who this person is," Leslie said.

"I certainly did not attack this person and I have never attacked anyone."

He said he had been told by the judge in his 2003 trial that he left the court "completely innocent and without a stain on my character."

"Now, five years later, it all starts again. Another person, protected by the anonymity that the law gives them, is able to drag my name through the mud."

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