In his first television interview following his arrest for shoplifting, celebrity chef Antony Worrall Thompson told Brendan O'Connor on RTÉ One's The Saturday Night Show that he feels "very embarrassed, very ashamed", but also hit out at media coverage of the story.
Worrall Thompson was cautioned by police after he was caught stealing from the Tesco store in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, while using a self-scanning till earlier this month.
He told host O'Connor: "I'm in a bad place obviously. I'm very embarrassed, very ashamed. I put my hands up to it; I did it, which is inexplicable."
He continued: "It's something that I've got to get to the bottom of and I'm having counselling because it's completely against the run of play, if you want.
"I reckon I'm usually a pretty good guy, I do a lot for charity, a lot of helping other people and I don't know what on earth made me do that, it's just extraordinary."
Watch The Saturday Night Show interview: http://www.rte.ie/player/#!v=1130994
Worrall Thompson contrasted the support he has received on his website with his treatment by some sections of the media.
"What I've suffered this week is worse than doing a prison sentence," he claimed.
"I would rather have been fined or gone to prison because the Press have been extraordinary. It's just been beyond any relationship to the crime. I mean I wasn't charged; I was given a rap on the knuckles. I did a crime, I appreciate that it [was] very, very stupid and I am very, very embarrassed."
Questioning the front page coverage, he said: "There are people dying or being murdered and we are pushing them to the side of the page, is that really right?
"I am prepared to take the flak, I deserve the flak, but I'm not sure I deserve what's hit me this week.
"It's been like being in the stocks, the modern day stocks with people throwing things - the stones will come maybe but at the moment it's just squishy tomatoes really.
"There's been good press, of course there's been good press, [but] there's been shocking press."
"I'm not making excuses," he said. "I've never made excuses; I've always taken the rough with the smooth in my life.
"I've had a huge amount of ups and downs and this is probably one of the lowest downs I've had, that's for sure."
