The former TV presenter John Leslie has appeared in court accused of putting his hand down a woman’s trousers as they danced on her hen night.
The woman, who cannot be identified, was in the Atik nightclub in Edinburgh last June when the alleged sexual assault took place. She said she saw Leslie when they entered the club and recognised him from television, particularly Blue Peter.
Leslie, 53, denies putting his hand under the woman’s clothing and touching her bare bottom.
Leslie is on trial at Edinburgh sheriff court under his real name, John Stott.
The accuser, the first person to give evidence, said she had spoken to Leslie during the night about football, some of his ex-girlfriends and speculation that he could appear in the TV programme Celebrity Big Brother.
While dancing with friends and a stag party later in the night she said Leslie approached her and said “be careful, you’re getting married”. She said she thought he was being “protective” and suggested they dance together.
Leslie had a hand on her waist and she had a hand on his shoulder, the court heard.
“We’d been going in circles then he pulled me closer,” the woman said. “I did feel uncomfortable but thought I was maybe reading too much into it.”
She said she gave her friend “a look” to make her aware she was uncomfortable. “After that I felt his hand go down my trousers at the back. I didn’t know how to react. I made even more of a look to my friend because I knew I needed to be out of that situation.”
She said Leslie touched her skin but was not sure if he had put his hand beneath her underwear. Once a friend pulled her away the woman told the court that she danced briefly with her hen party to “pretend it hadn’t happened”, but got upset and sat down in a booth.
“I asked my friend something like: ‘Why did he think he could do that?’ or: ‘What did I do to make him do that?’
She went outside with a friend and her sister-in-law who said they should tell someone, the court heard. She said they told a female bouncer and later a police officer at the nightclub who took her to a station to make a statement.
CCTV of the pair dancing in the busy club was played to the court and the woman said it could not be seen exactly when the alleged incident happened.
Asked by fiscal depute Fiona Nairn how she felts now, the woman said it had impacted on her relationship with her husband, friends and work.
She said: “It’s been one of the toughest years of my life when it should have been the happiest.”
Derek Ogg QC, defending, said of the CCTV: “We don’t see a hand going under a tutu or trousers or coming out of trousers.”
The trial continues.