Former Barnet mayor Brian Coleman ‘once slept with an Arsenal striker’

Brian Coleman wrote in his blog last week that he "once slept with an Arsenal striker". Picture: Polly Hancock. Archant

Former Barnet mayor Brian Coleman has claimed in a public blog that he “once slept with an Arsenal striker” despite previously insisting he does not discuss his private life with “anyone”.

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Among the 26 posts made to his blog The King of Bling is back, the Barnet councillor has rubbished his own council’s £320million One Barnet outsourcing programme as “nuts”.

He has also lamented the decline of local newspapers – including, as he puts it, “the once mighty Hampstead and Highgate Express”.

But in November, the former London Fire Authority chief made it clear in a post to the blog that one subject was not up for discussion – his private life.

Giving his view about Lord Leveson’s report on media ethics in light of his own run-in with the late News of the World, he wrote: “At the time I was extremely puzzled as to how the newspaper got hold of any supposed details of my private life, something I do not discuss with anybody.”

But last week Cllr Coleman made a surprise revelation on the blog with a post recollecting a sexual encounter with an anonymous “Arsenal striker”.

In the piece about Barnet Football Club’s unsuccessful attempt to redevelop their Underhill Stadium, Cllr Coleman notes that he “has little interest in football” but, however, “once slept with an Arsenal striker”.

It follows another memorable incident almost seven years ago when Cllr Coleman wrote a weekly column for the Ham&High.

In one of these columns, Cllr Coleman announced he did not care what the press wrote about him, only to pull out of writing the column two weeks later - citing his dismay about an adverse comment about him in an editorial.