TELEVISION presenter John Leslie was named on live TV yesterday as the man at the centre of date rape allegations by Ulrika Jonsson.

The popular This Morning host and former Blue Peter and Wheel of Fortune presenter was inadvertently identified during a morning talk show and later named by The Evening Standard in London.

A statement was promised by a spokeswoman for the presenter but there appeared to be a change of heart last night when she said: "There will be no statement today."

As well as The Evening Standard, at least two other evening newspapers as well as Internet web sites also identified the presenter yesterday.

Miss Jonsson's alleged attacker is reported to have strongly denied the allegations, saying he had sex with the TV star but it was consensual.

Miss Jonsson, who describes the alleged attack in her autobiography Honest, had again refused to name the fellow celebrity yesterday.

She has also not made any official complaint to police, despite being urged to do so by some anti-rape campaign groups.

However, the alleged attacker is facing a police investigation after another woman claimed she was attacked by him.

The woman, who is 30, walked into a police station in London and was spoken to by detectives for several hours. She has alleged that she was raped in south-west London in 1998.

A police spokesman said: "A woman came in and made an allegation of rape. Obviously, we are investigating."

The inquiry was later handed over to Scotland Yard's Serious Crime Group.

Leslie - a former boyfriend of Miss Jonsson and Catherine Zeta Jones - was inadvertently named yesterday morning by Matthew Wright during his show The Wright Stuff on Five, formerly Channel 5.

Wright mentioned the man's name during an item entitled "trial by media", in which he discussed the Miss Jonsson's allegations with journalist and broadcaster Vivienne Parry.

Miss Parry was discussing two other women who have approached publicist Max Clifford about encounters with the same man. These women have not alleged rape.

She said: "This really is big trial by media. It sort of worries me that . . . these two women who have now come forward, they haven't gone to the police, where have the gone? Max Clifford. So I mean . . ."

Wright let slip the name when he interjected to point out that, of the three women who have made allegations, one of them had published a book and the other two were "working with one of the highest profile publicists around".

The camera then focused on Miss Parry, who was staring at Wright in stunned silence.

At the end of the item, Wright invited viewers to ring in with their comments on whether they thought the alleged attacker could have a fair trial in light of the publicity - this time careful not to name him.

He immediately apologised and a spokeswoman for Five said: "It was never the intention of The Wright Stuff to name anyone in connection with this story."

However, it became clear last night that national newspapers were going to follow The Evening Standard's lead and name Leslie.

Miss Jonsson has claimed she was attacked in 1988 when she was a young TV weather girl