'Lee attacked Leslie's sister'

Leslie Ash and her husband Lee Chapman said they were 'deeply hurt' last night following a double challenge to their denials of domestic violence.

The couple issued a statement after Leslie's elder sister Debbie claimed that he had attacked both women.

In a separate development, a former security chief at Chapman's nightclub alleged that he had seen the ex-footballer punch his wife to the ground in a row at the club.

Leslie, 44, is back in hospital fighting an infection suffered after she was admitted last month with cracked ribs and a punctured lung.

Reports that the infection had left her paralysed below the waist and able to feel only her toes were denied yesterday by a spokesman who said she was making good progress.

She and Chapman are continuing to insist that her injuries were sustained accidentally during a vigorous love-making session.

But 47- year- old Debbie Ash

begged her sister to leave Chapman and said: ' I fear for her life. Who knows what the next "accident" will do to her? I have kept quiet all these years because I thought it was up to her, but now I realise she is in deep denial about what is happening.'

Debbie said she had experienced Chapman's volcanic temper in 2001, after she and her sister had gone back to Leslie's Fulham home leaving him drinking in a nightclub.

Chapman stormed into the house in a rage and accused them of leaving him in the club 'like an idiot', said Debbie.

'He grabbed Leslie and shook her. He was screaming, " You selfish bitch". He started hitting her about the head and face. I jumped in and he went berserk. He had his hands round my throat and was squeezing. He lifted me off the floor and threw me over the kitchen table, screaming abuse.

'Then he suddenly went very still - he was staring at me and spat in my face.'

Roland Ball, who was head of security at the Teatro club, said of Chapman: 'He says he has never touched her yet I saw him punch Leslie to the ground right there in front of me in a club toilet. She fell to the ground.'

He said Leslie had stormed off to the ladies' lavatories at Teatro after a row with Chapman in November 1999. 'Lee followed her. After about five minutes I went to find them. They were in front of the sink in the ladies screaming when Lee punched Leslie straight in the face and she fell to the ground. How a man could do that is disgusting.'

Mr Ball, 37, claimed he went to calm the situation but Chapman pushed him and he slipped to the floor, banging his head and needing 18 stitches.

In their statement, the couple said the claims by Debbie and Mr Ball were ' simply not true'. Spokesman Neil Reading added: 'Debbie clearly has no regard for Leslie's feelings or current state of health.

'Leslie does not know how long she will be in hospital as the consultant has not advised her.

'She has got feeling below her waist in both legs and every day that improves.'