Blair's wife questioned by police over 'slap'

The wife of British Prime Minister Tony Blair has been questioned by police after child protection officials reported her for…

The wife of British Prime Minister Tony Blair has been questioned by police after child protection officials reported her for pretending to slap a cheeky teenager.

Cherie Blair was being photographed with teenager Miles Gandolfi at the UK Schools Games sports event in Glasgow, Scotland, when the 17-year-old jokingly raised his hand behind her head to make a "bunny ears" gesture.

In response, Mrs Blair, a prominent human rights lawyer and mother of four children, took it in good humour and pretended to slap the boy, telling him he was cheeky. Newspaper pictures then showed them laughing and hugging each other.

But officials from the Child Protection in Sports Unit reported Mrs Blair to police who then questioned promising fencer Mr Gandolfi about the incident.

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"Following further inquiries into an alleged incident said to have occurred at the UK School Games at Scotstoun Leisure Centre on September 9th, it has now been established that no incident took place," a Glasgow police spokeswoman said. "Police inquiries into the matter are now complete."

Mr Gandolfi's mother Catherine said she could not understand why any complaint had been made. "It wasn't an assault of anything like that," she told the Mail on Sundaynewspaper. "It was just a bit of fun on his part - it was all very lighthearted."

However all the fuss had affected her son's performance in the competition, she said.

Mrs Blair has been under intense media scrutiny, much of it hostile, since her husband became British premier in 1997. She was at the centre of a high-profile scandal in 2002 when it emerged that a convicted fraudster had helped her in a number of property deals, although there was no suggestion she had behaved illegally.