Tabloidesque Topic: Ulrika's Rapist Revealed

[Prophet Tenebrae]

Apparently it was John Leslie, or so someone just told me on MSN. So it must be true.

[KayBee]

I heard that as well - SHOCKING! So much for my theory that it was Richard Maddely.. dammit

[Prophet Tenebrae]

I didn't see the interview where Ulrika revealed that she had been raped but read about it in The Times (further evidence of its tabloidisation) but really John Leslie isn't someone I can imagine being able to blackball you in the television community.

[LJ]

I love John Leslie to bits!!! He's sooo gorgeous. Can't imagine him doing something like that.

[Never backed Bibby]

[s]LJ wrote on 08:43, 24th Oct 2002:
I love John Leslie to bits!!! He's sooo gorgeous. Can't imagine him doing something like that.


John Leslie was loved to bits by a St A's student about seven years ago - he had to get a restraining order put on her - but no I will not be doing a "kiss and tell" on who she was.

NBB

[splittter]

this from the guardian this morning:

The TV presenter John Leslie was inadvertently linked yesterday with
widely reported claims by Ulrika Jonsson, says the Guardian. There is
no evidence to suggest Leslie was involved in the incident to which
Jonsson refers in her autobiography, it adds.

For those who want to know apparently several tabloids have named the actual person this morning.

[splittter]

hmmm ... what I quoted above seems to be an ultra cunning way of reporting the story without getting very badly sued ... devious broadsheet bastards.

[Al]

They wouldn't have been sued anyway. According to an article in the Scotsman, once a story is in the "public domain" it can be reported freely. However, Matthew Wright who blurted out John Leslie's name can, and probably will, be sued.

[hr]"Shelley and jazz and lieder and love and hymn-tunes and day returns too soon...."

[kensson]

I once managed to persuade a flatmate that John Leslie (one of Scotland's oh-so-authentic rugby internationals) and John Leslie (Wheel of Fortune) were one and the same. I never had the heart to tell her the truth.

[Prophet Tenebrae]

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2002491353,00.html

For the "true" story.

[Oli]

Until the person is charged with the offence, then whoever publicises their name can have a libel writ issued against them.

Although the knowledge may have been in the public domain, that is not to say that everyone immediately knows who it is.

I don't suppose that too many people watch Channel 5, and so those who don't would have been left in the dark about who was involved. By printing and publishing the person's name, they are helping to divulge the information, and as such, can be held partly responsible.

The Telegraph and BBC have held back as usual, and not mentioned any names.

If a libel case goes to court, then the media companies involved would have to appoint a witness, but Ulrika Jonnson has already said that she wouldn't name names.

Doesn't look good for the companies involved if a libel writ is issued...

[Prophet Tenebrae]

Would anyone actually bother suing Channel 5? Although the fact that just the allegations - regardless of veracity - will probably cripple John Leslie's career worse than a working over by mob enforcers.

[Al]

Irrespective of whether or not there is any truth in the allegations, Ulrika's case is hardly strengthened by giving two different years for when the attack allegedly took place. As for the stories in the Sun, how did the other supposed rape victim know, without any names being mentioned, that it was the same man? Call me cynical if you wish but when a person's first point of call is a notorious PR, it makes me doubt their story.

[hr]"Shelley and jazz and lieder and love and hymn-tunes and day returns too soon...."

[Prophet Tenebrae]

Quite, and why she decided that the TV interview would be the right time to make allegiation - which lets face it, would inevitably lead to an unmasking - instead of say, going to the Police.

Yes, rape is a difficult case to push but I have to say that really if she's trying to push the helpless angle, she isn't really doing herself any favours by being the village bicycle and selling her story to the tabloids every couple of years.

[splittter]

because I'm a bad person I just got round to reading a mail a friend sent my a few days ago ... in it he discussed ulrika's allegations, and speculated about who it could have been. He guessed John Leslie, but dismissed him because:

"obviously the first thought
is John Leslie because he's lecherous enough, but it can't be him
because Max Clifford was talking about the mystery rapist in front of
him and Fern brittan on this morning. So unless it's an elaborate
double bluff, it's not John leslie."

bloody hell ... did anyone see that? ... wonder if john realised at the time ... poor bastard, he must have wanted to hurt Max quite a bit.

[Prophet Tenebrae]

I notice John Leslie has mysteriously disappeared from television.

[Al]

I don't think that there is anything mysterious about it. With all the nutters crawling out of the wood-work, he is well advised to lie low. What is it now? Twenty four women suddenly remembering vicious attacks on them by John Leslie. It must be the first time in history that rats have jumped onto a sinking ship.

[hr]"Happiness is a time, a place...a chemical imbalance"

[Sebastian]

'being the village bicycle and selling her story to the tabloids every couple of years'

Isn't this just a little bit irrelevant?. I'm not saying that she was necessarily raped by John Leslie, but surely the fact that she has sex and sells her story shouldn't prove her case one way or the other.

[medea]

Anyone who sues Matthew Wright is ok by me.

[Nick Mitchell]

Yeah, everything I've heard on the topic says that repeating the libel (Evening Standard, Sun, etc etc) is libel itself, and therefore if Mr Leslie decided to take, say, the Evening Standard to court, the onus would be on the Standard to prove beyond reasonable doubt (as it is a criminal allegation) that Leslie committed the offence. However no doubt the case would involve a lot of dragging Leslie's reputation through the mud until he was finally awarded compensation.