From THE MIRROR
Ulrika Jonsson came under pressure to explain her rape allegations last night after pictures were published of her apparently sharing a cosy TV chat with sacked presenter John Leslie.

Ulrika, who claimed she "blanked" her attacker after the alleged incident, seems fully at ease with Leslie in a sequence filmed five years later.

She appears almost flirtatious in the shots taken from a recording for Channel 4's Big Breakfast show in 1993 - despite claiming in her autobiography that she ignored the presenter and held him in "total disdain" after the attack.

Sources close to Leslie last night seized on the footage as evidence which may clear his name.

A spokesman said: "His lawyers believe the date of the interview is very significant in the light of the allegations."

The images show Ulrika sitting face to face with Leslie on a sofa as she smiles and introduces the former Blue Peter presenter.

The body language between the pair appears warm and friendly. Ulrika smiles and laughs throughout.

She describes Leslie as a "pin-up" and jokes that she will "not sleep tonight" because he is quitting Blue Peter.

She teases him about his relationship with Catherine Zeta Jones and asks: "Is it all over?" Leslie admits it is. She responds sympathetically: "Did it sort of upset you, all the press and publicity?"

She then asks if he has found someone else. He replies: "Can't say. But no, there isn't."

Ulrika ends the interview by saying: "So you've got no girlfriend and you're leaving your job. It sounds very depressing."

Ulrika, 35, claims she was raped in a hotel room as she was training to be a TV-am weathergirl.

She has refused to name her alleged attacker but Leslie was identified as the man at the centre of the scandal on live TV by Channel 5 presenter Matthew Wright.

Police are now investigating allegations by several other women against Leslie - axed from his £250,000 job on This Morning last week.

Ulrika remained silent yesterday over her behaviour in the interview.

A spokesman said it was merely down to her "professionalism".

Last night it was revealed that Leslie fled his £1.5million London home when the scandal broke to stay with with girlfriend Abby Titmuss at the nursing home where she works.

Abby, 25, sneaked him past security and up to her room at the central London building after he asked her to shelter him from reporters.

"He stayed at least one or two nights," said one of Abby's friends. "She really loves him but I'm not sure she means as much to him."