The real Leslie, by his ex

Siobhan McClafferty has never spoken about the nine-month relationship she had with John Leslie. In the time she spent with him - film premieres, nights at his parents' home in Scotland and weekends with her own family in Ireland - she kept her silence. Even when Leslie, against whom all sex charges were dropped yesterday in a 15-minute hearing at Southwark Crown Court, became a hated and hunted figure, she said little.

But today, as the television star tries to rebuild his shattered life and, as importantly, his career, Siobhan is the first of Leslie's former girlfriends and companions to speak out in his defence. She does so now, she says, because despite her overall faith in him, she too began to have understandable doubts about whether the man she knew had a dark and threatening side.

She gives a very personal - some might say, one-sided - view of Leslie. But she believes it to be an honest one. "When I first heard about the claims against John, I thought it was just a joke almost. But when the other women came forward, when all of these women started saying these awful, appalling things, all of them coming out of the woodwork, well, I thought: 'My God, is this the same man that I knew?'"

It is important to say at this point that Siobhan McClafferty, 32, a one-time beauty queen turned highly successful businesswoman, is not one of the "ardent" Leslie supporters who have - publicly and privately - been lobbying for his return to a high profile. Some might dismiss her: she is a former Ryanair hostess who was Miss Ireland in 1990 and went on to become runner-up in the Miss World contest. She is, nonetheless, a woman used to being pursued by amorous men, and one well schooled in how to deal with their advances.

She talks about Leslie as "a friend", rather than anything more intimate, but she is also a direct woman who, however much his fame might have been attractive to her, you feel is not easily fooled. "I have spent time with John and what I was hearing wasn't the outgoing, charming, unthreatening man I knew. John was one of the most compassionate, genuine, interesting men I had spent time with. I still think of him like that. People may scoff at that but I maintain that.

"We had so much in common and there was never, ever, a time when I felt uncomfortable being with him. Believe me: I can look after myself and if there had ever been a time when I felt he was being anything other than a great guy to be with, then I'd have made it pretty clear to him. I wouldn't have held back in what I said or had anything more to do with him.

"I know it's easy to say, 'Well, you only saw one side of him', but I can tell you this: I am not stupid. Even when we first were getting to know each other, there were times - and you know what I am saying - when he could have pushed things just a bit too far. That can happen with any man. But it never happened with John.

"When I heard yesterday morning that he had been freed from all charges, my heart was pounding. I feel just as defensive about him as I would a little brother. I know his parents, I know how close he is to them, I know the kind of things their neighbours will have been saying, and, yes, I also felt relieved that the man I knew - and thought I knew pretty well - wasn't the one who was capable of doing these kinds of things."

However, the manner in which he wooed her might be described as "classic Leslie". It was a Friday evening in the spring of 1995 that Siobhan, now the owner of the fashionable Cover Shots photographic agency in Dublin, went along with her sister and some friends to the Cafe en Seine bar in the city. She had come second in Miss World four years earlier. A tall, burly man at the bar was obviously interested in her. After a while, he came over and made his introductions.

"When he told me his name, I had absolutely no idea who he was," Siobhan said at her office in Dublin. "John Leslie wasn't a star in Ireland. The conversation rolled on and after a short time he asked me if I'd like to have lunch with him."

The couple met the next day and Leslie, who at the time was presenting Wheel of Fortune, revealed his ambitions. "Because I had a high profile in Ireland, and he had in Britain, we found an awful lot to talk about. He was very ambitious: he talked about how he wanted to keep on in TV for two years, how he wanted eventually to become an actor. There was never any doubt in my mind that John loved the attention, he loved the publicity which surrounded him then, and he was very focused about what he wanted."

Of course, that single-mindedness - a penchant to pursue women he found sexually attractive - was ultimately to come back to haunt Leslie in spectacularly dramatic circumstances. But for Siobhan, his pursuit of her was intense, if somewhat old-fashioned. "After we lunched, we talked on the phone every now and again, normal things. One Thursday night, John called me. He told me he was going to the Rob Roy film premiere in Edinburgh that Saturday night and would I join him."

Leslie picked her up at Edinburgh airport on the Saturday and drove her to the home of his parents, Leslie, 61, and Lexia, 59. Leslie's mother took Siobhan straight to her own room and then went back downstairs to make her a cup of tea as Siobhan quickly showered and dressed for the evening. Within an hour, the couple set off to the premiere.

"I might have been well known in Ireland, but I had no idea about the kind of attention John received in Britain. After the film, we went to a party at Edinburgh Castle: it was madness. I was the new 'blonde' in his life."

That did not stop them continuing to enjoy each other's company: they were separated by the Irish Sea, and both had their own lives and ambitions, but a short while after the Rob Roy premiere, Siobhan felt close enough to Leslie to invite him back to Ireland. "I'd been invited to a ball at the Burlington Hotel in Dublin and I wanted John to be there. I went to the airport to pick him up and there was this huge, lumbering Scot coming into Arrivals wearing a kilt. He was - is - that kind of chap, or certainly the one I saw: he was, you know, just great fun."

Despite the times they had shared together, the couple gradually drifted apart, and they have not been in touch for some time. She did not attempt to contact him during his 10-month ordeal.

Even given his victory yesterday, there are those who will continue to view Leslie as a sexually aggressive predator. The "no smoke without fire" contingent, of which there are many, will still view him critically.

Siobhan, mother of a three-year-old girl, sees it differently. She talks openly and frankly about Leslie because she has nothing to hide. And nor, she says, does he. Can he recover from his ordeal? "If he can get back to where he was, and I know that is what he'll want to do, then I do not see why he should not. He got through all of this because his family - who are genuinely good, honest people - stood by him. I would hope he's just allowed to try to get his life back together."

Others, of course, will beg to differ.