Lost - Journalistic Integrity. If Found, Please Return to 'Daily Mail' Offices...

John Leslie issued a statement yesterday over the new rape allegations put to him after 13 years had elapsed:

Mr Leslie said he "certainly did not attack this person", claimed the inquiry had been "leaked" and said that he again faced "trial by media".

He said that, "if I sound bitter, it is because I am."

It’s difficult not to agree with him on that score, if you read Alison Boshoff’s biased and disgusting little article in the ‘Mail’ today:

At the age of 43, Leslie remains in flight from any kind of conventional private life. His friends like to call him an 'eternal bachelor' - others might describe him as on the cusp of being a dirty old man.

'He is a nightmare around women,' one said, when detailing Leslie's compulsive flirtin, which continues unabated.

Oh, noes! Flirting! And with women! How appalling….

Despite the scandals which drove him out of the public eye, Leslie is not short of female attention. He craves it and gets it easily.
Women seek him out in nightclubs, and one friend said that his mobile telephone periodically receives saucy photo messages from partially-clothed female acquaintances who are keen to get to know him better.

‘Famous, rich man goes to nightclub, women throw themselves at him! News at Eleven!’

But the good looks which helped him to attract hundreds of willing sexual partners during his years of fame have faded considerably.

He is paunchy and going grey. Little remains of the clean-cut Blue Peter presenter who had a romance with a little-known actress named Catherine Zeta Jones.

Yes, quite unlike other aging former television stars, I’m sure. And so what if he is going paunchy and grey? I get the feeling if anyone had dared to describe an over-the-hill female TV personality in such terms, Ms Boshoff’s finely tuned sense of indignation would have gone into overdrive…

Since being sacked as the presenter of ITV's This Morning for his indiscretions, Leslie has been quietly engaged in making money in property.

He has amassed around £4million - a tidy fortune - and has broadened his portfolio to embrace 'dozens' of properties.

Ironically, Leslie is probably financially better off than he could ever have been as a television presenter.

You mean, he’s had the temerity to become a property developer..?! For shame! Doesn’t he know, after being falsely accused of rape, a man’s only choice is to become a hermit in penance for the sin of possessing a penis…?

Leslie's lifestyle is extremely comfortable - but it comes as little surprise that his sleazy habits remain.

There have been allegations of continued drug use, a fondness for sex toys and degrading group sex in sensationalist Sunday newspapers.

Oh, well, if it’s been in the Sunday papers, it MUST be true!

Leslie was charged and the case came to court, but on the eve of the trial the actress then presented the police with 'new information' and the indecent assault charges were dropped.

The judge said that Leslie left court 'without a stain on his character'.

This, of course, was not true. Such a volume of women had presented allegations which were so similar it was hard for people not to conclude that Leslie's private life was, at the very least, rather sleazy.

Well, I think the courts will be the judge of that, sweetie. As much as you might like to wish it wasn’t the case, he did indeed leave the court without a stain on his character.

Unhappily, so did his accuser, who like this latest one, retains her anonymity, while Leslie has his character assassinated even after acquittal by second-rate media journalists.

This vile and corrosive article is an affront to journalism, and little Ms Boshoff needs a lesson in ethics. It underlines exactly what is wrong with the media today.