Waiting for John Leslie

John Leslie arrived with his girlfriend Abby Titmuss

An hour or so before the court opened its doors, and 20 members of the press stood in the drizzle outside the locked, empty building.

It was to be a long wait.

The Daily Star photographer enjoyed a joke with a uniformed policeman as camera crews set up their positions behind makeshift barricades.

Lenses to the left and the right; metal step ladders jostling for space behind the steel barriers; a satellite truck testing its transmission a few yards down the road.

The producer from Sky News checked in with her colleague, and the BBC's radio and TV staff compared legal notes to determine what they could and could not say.

Mr Leslie declined to answer reporters' questions

Courtroom artists arrived with their crayons and pencils and rafts of paper, ready to sketch the defendant sitting in the dock for the evening TV news.

An hour later, the rain had gone but the journalists continued pouring in, as Britain's national media thronged London's famous Bow Street Magistrates Court for a sight of Leslie.

By 0930 BST there were more than 100, led by the reporters waiting in line outside Bow Street's tall wooden doors.

Leslie was to be in the dock for less than 10 minutes - but his brief appearance was attracting journalistic inquiry beyond the showbiz columns of the tabloids.

The woman from The Independent and the Channel 4 News reporter, too, scribbled their notes, demonstrating an interest shared by the more serious end of the media spectrum.

Inside the courtroom hall, we subjected ourselves to strict airport-style security carried out by uniformed guards.

Mr Leslie talked to reporters after he was charged

The first 35 press through the door were given small individually numbered cards, offering prized access to the oak-panelled room of court number one.

There, we squeezed on to two long wooden benches as court officials briskly set about their paperwork amid a low hum.

Silence descended as Mr Leslie entered the book-lined room alongside his girlfriend, then took the few strides to the dock.

He sat upright on a long, iron-backed bench, facing the judge, his hands folded together in front of him.

He spoke three times, only briefly; once when asked to confirm his full name - John Leslie Stott, saying: "I am yes", rising slightly from his seat to answer the court clerk.

Later, when asked to stand, he replied: "Certainly". Then, asked whether he was ready to indicate pleas, he said in a clear voice: "I am indeed, yes. Not guilty."

Outside he was driven away as photographers scrambled for pictures.

A small scuffle broke out across the road as photographers became involved in an argument with police officers.

One photographer said police had tried to stop them taking pictures, and a confrontation had developed.

But a Metropolitan police spokesman said it had been a minor incident and there had been no arrests.

Just another good-natured media scramble, then.