Former Blue Peter presenter John Leslie has been charged with sexually assaulting a woman.
The 54-year-old Scot will appear in court after an alleged incident in London’s Soho over a decade ago, when the victim was 30.
Scotland Yard said the TV star, who has been a household name since the late eighties on shows such as Wheel of Fortune, This Morning and CBBC, was charged with unconsensual sexual touching of a woman.
Charged on June 5, he is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on July 25.
In a statement on the charge, Scotland Yard said Leslie “was charged by postal requisition on Wednesday, 5 June with sexual touching of a woman aged 16 or over, contrary to Section 3 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003.”
The charge alleges Mr Leslie “intentionally touched a woman aged 16 or over, and the touching was sexual when she did not consent and you did not reasonably believe she was consenting”.
Mr Leslie, from Edinburgh, got his big break in TV in 1989, after he became a presenter on children’s programme, Blue Peter.
He presented alongside Caron Keating, Tim Vincent, Anthea Turner, and Diane-Louise Jordan.
Mr Leslie dated Welsh movie star Catherine Zeta-Jones in the nineties before a high-profile romance with Abi Titmuss, which began while he was working on This Morning.
Mr Leslie has not yet entered a plea on the charge.
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