Davies claimed "an error of judgement" in agreeing to go for what he said was a meal with a man he had met while walking on Clapham Common in London, which is a well-known gay meeting place. He was mugged at knifepoint. The full details of the incident (which he infamously called a 'moment of madness at the urging of Tony Blair's Press secretary Alastair Campbell) have never emerged.

Ron Davies had written it in Biro on the back of his hand before appearing before the television camera on Friday, but 'Sorry' was a word he could hardly forget. His constituency in Wales, his Labour Party colleagues, the Prime Minister himself were all clamouring for an apology, or at least an explanation, for what had happened during the week.

Mr Davies seemed at a genuine loss for words as he outlined the "moment of madness" that led to his downfall. He could not describe what had happened on Clapham Common and at Brixton police station on Monday night and at Downing Street the following morning. He was unable to explain why he had resigned as Welsh Secretary and given up the chance to become First Secretary of Wales. He was just "deeply sorry", he said, close to tears and glancing at his hand for reassurance, and wanted "to get that message across".

There were times last week when Mr Davies's human tragedy threatened to turn into an Ayckbourn farce - with sex and drugs set neatly against the backdrop of next week's flagship consultation paper on the family. Characters scurried from one room to another, desperately trying to keep up appearances but not really sure what they should be covering up. And each time the Downing Street stage managers thought they had the plot back on track, another rogue element would pop out from behind a curtain. By Friday the Westminster rumour mill was even pumping out stories of that staple of British farce, cross-dressing.

Davies drove himself up to London from Wales on Monday, exhausted after a difficult weekend. It seems he had been feeling under increasing pressure in recent weeks, run-down after the close referendum on the Welsh Assembly and drained by the battle to become the candidate to lead the group. His tiredness had been exacerbated last Sunday by the floods in his constituency and by worries about his wife Christine's illness. As he pounded down the motorway, he was overwhelmed by a sense that he could hardly cope.

When he arrived in London he did not go straight to his Battersea home, but drove to Clapham Common - a pick-up venue for gay men and a haunt of drug dealers - "to get some fresh air". Nobody knows quite what happened next. The consensus has Mr Davies falling into conversation with a stranger, a Rastafarian aged around 50. The man invited him to a house in Brixton - Mr Davies says for dinner - and he agreed to go. They got into the minister's car and drove to pick up two of the stranger's friends, one male, one female. Somewhere between Clapham and the St Matthew's estate, the man pulled a knife and told Mr Davies to stop the car. The gang held the weapon at the Welsh Secretary's throat as they rifled through his possessions and found two wallets, one in the glove compartment, one in the boot. They told him to hand over his cash and threatened to burn his car if he did not. They tried to make him draw money out of a cashpoint machine and buy alcohol at an off-licence. They grabbed his mobile phone, then they threw him out of the car and drove off, shouting that their victim should bring money to an underground car-park if he wanted to see his vehicle in one piece again.

Davies was in a confused and highly distressed state as he stumbled around the streets (Downing Street insists he was not drunk). He described how the pressure had been building as he realised how much danger he was in, until it 'exploded' in a "very, very tense, very unpleasant scene". He was shaking and close to tears when he eventually found a police station. There is disagreement about what happened next - some reports say Mr Davies first claimed he had been car-jacked outside his home in Battersea, then changed his story. Mr Davies says that after several hours of pacing the streets with the police looking for his car, he returned to the station and gave a more "considered" view than his first account of what had happened. That night he did not sleep because he was so worried about what to do next.

On Tuesday morning the police telephoned Jack Straw, the Home Secretary, to inform him that a minister had been held up at knife-point. But by then Davies had already asked his office to contact Downing Street and arrange a meeting. He arrived at 11 o'clock looking dishevelled, exhausted and extremely upset and was ushered straight into the Prime Minister's office. Alastair Campbell, Mr Blair's press secretary, and some officials, were also present. The Welsh Secretary explained that he had decided to quit because he had had a "serious lapse of judgement" which would make his position in the Government untenable. Blair asked him what had happened but after a 40-minute conversation was unable to get to the bottom of the mystery. Downing Street admits that it is still as much "in the dark" as anybody else about precisely what happened on Monday night. "There are parts of this story which we find as baffling as you do." the Prime Minister's official spokesman said. "And I think Ron is baffled by how he got himself into this situation, too."

The Labour machine acted swiftly to try to deal with the embarrassing events. Alun Michael, the Home Office minister, was interrupted at Christopher's restaurant in Covent Garden by a phone call from Downing Street summoning him to an urgent meeting. He was informed that he was about to be promoted to Welsh Secretary. The BBC was called into No 10 at 4pm for "an interview". John Sargeant, the political correspondent, assumed it was to be a boring lecture by the Prime Minister about the economy. Davies was ushered into the room and announced that he had resigned. Hovering in the background as he did so was Campbell. But this was news that even the godfather of spin was unable to manage.

Davies had told Blair that the incident on Clapham Common was an "aberration" and tried to assure him that there were no skeletons lurking in his closet. But both men knew exactly what the tabloids - and indeed the broadsheets - would make of the bizarre sequence.

And they did. There was no ambiguity in the headlines on Wednesday - the Sun declared 'Cabinet minister quits in gay sex scandal', the Mail announced the 'Gay riddle of minister'. By then Davies had fled London to be with his wife and 13-year-old daughter at a friend's house in Wales. He was deeply upset by the reports and consistently denied that sex or drugs had been involved.

But as Labour MPs gathered for their first meeting since the summer recess on Wednesday morning there was talk of little else. Clive Soley, chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party, gave a short statement confirming that the Welsh Secretary had quit. But the gossip was far more lurid. "Oh yes, the rumours about Ron have been circulating for years." one minister said gleefully. Others were more cautious. "I just can't believe it." one member of the Government said. "Alcohol, yes, drugs, maybe, but Ron and gay sex? No way." Alternative theories were put forward. One was that Davies had been trying to buy marijuana for his sick wife, that he had been driving to see a female prostitute with a pimp.

As the hot-house atmosphere intensified, speculation about the secret lives of other MPs and ministers began to surface. Matthew Parris, the Times columnist, astonished his colleagues by 'outing' Peter Mandelson on Newsnight - despite the journalist's long-standing opposition to such tactics from the gay pressure group Outrage. Jeremy Paxman hand-delivered a letter of apology to the Trade and Industry Secretary the following morning. At the same time, rumours about another member of the Government and rent boys began circulating.

Across London, deals were under way. Three men telephoned Max Clifford, the PR guru notorious for selling 'kiss and tell' stories to the tabloids, claiming they had had homosexual encounters with Davies in public toilets and on commons in Wales. At least one is likely to be published this weekend, in return for an estimated £65,000 fee. On Thursday morning Clifford got an even bigger catch - the MP's first wife, Anne, let it be known that she wanted to sell her story. Her new boyfriend, Paul Martin, telephoned the celebrity fixer offering a 'package' of allegations about sex and drugs. The interview was snapped up by the Mail on Sunday for £75,000. Perhaps aware that the allegations would not die down, Davies made contact with the Prime Minister again. He had already resigned from the Cabinet but until then his allies were still insisting that he was determined to become the First Secretary of Wales. He realised that he would never fulfil his ambition and informed Blair that he intended to pull out of that race, too. Then he went down to Brixton police station to attend an identity parade at which he was mean to try and spot a suspect who had been arrested earlier in the day.

Just as Downing Street was breathing a sigh of relief that the matter might almost be at an end, another sex scandal popped up. The Labour whip David Clelland entered stage left to announce that he was leaving his wife for his secretary. Meanwhile, with the carefully laid plans for the Welsh Assembly in tatters, the prospect of a triple whammy of rebels began to loom for the Government - Alex Salmond, Ken Livingstone, and Rhodri Morgan. Last week could not have gone worse for New Labour's news managers. The lesson they learnt from the Bernie Ecclestone affair was to get everything out in one fell swoop and stop the damaging drip of allegations. But they could not put that into practice with Davies because they did not know everything. There was a growing frustration with the former minister in government circles by Friday: the old left-winger who had often been off-message in opposition seemed to have prevented the leadership getting any message across at all. "Ron's not been straight." one aide said, "in more senses than one." This week, the Government will go into act two - in which the hero Blair unveils his plans to improve marriage. There will be endless column inches about the irony of its timing - but it is perhaps no coincidence. In his speech to the Labour conference, the Prime Minister appealed to the press not to use the family policy "as an excuse to dredge through the private lives of every public figure". But the tabloids are hardly going to respect that now. The title of this play is "Back to Basics" and the first lesson of politics is that governments tackle morality at their peril.

Former Welsh secretary Ron Davies was asked to explain his conflicting accounts of an alleged outdoors sex encounter. The general secretary of the Wales Labour party, Jessica Morden, called on Davies - who is scheduled to refight his Caephilly assembly seat in May - after the AM first denied, then half-confirmed a story in the Sun newspaper that he had performed a sex act in woodland with a stranger.

Officials from the Caerphilly constituency Labour Party also want to discuss the matter with him. The Sun newspaper claimed he groped a builder after luring him into bushes at a Gay Cruising Area near Bath, Bristol.

It was understood that Mr Davies, who resigned from Tony Blair's Cabinet in 1998 after his 'moment of madness on Clapham Common, he was also asked to meet members of the Welsh executive. However, a spokesman for the party declined to comment on the matter.

Mr Davies was fighting to salvage the remnants of his political career after changing his story over the claims. However, he says he has no intention of standing aside as Labour's candidate for Caerphilly at May's Welsh assembly election.

He initially denied the Sun story, saying "he was miles away from the site at the time of the alleged incident and had evidence to prove it". The photographs accompanying the article could have been taken in woodland near to where he walked his dogs three times a day, he said. He had said on Monday evening "This is an absolute fabrication. It is absurd. There is no truth in it whatsoever. The allegations are completely unfounded. I was giving a lecture in London on Monday. I have got a petrol receipt to prove where I was and I had to go through a security check. I left my home at 9.30am and arrived in central London at 11.45am. I was nowhere near Bath. I have not been there for 15 years."

However, the next day he admitted that he had in fact stopped there to go the toilet and have a walk in the woods, although he still denies the incident took place. In a statement he said "I did stop en-route adjacent to the motorway at an area I now know as Tog Hill and had a confrontation with a man who identified himself as a Sun photographer. I had stopped in the car park to go to the lavatory and went for a short walk in an adjacent area of public woodland."

Davies said he had initially denied being there because of confusion over timing. His constituency Labour party is standing by him, but also wants him to explain why he changed his story.

The incident in 1998 cost him the chance of becoming the inaugural first secretary of the Welsh assembly he did so much to bring about. He later said he was bisexual and had undergone psychiatric treatment for a compulsive disorder which made him seek out high-risk situations. He married his third wife, Lynne, and she gave birth to their daughter Gwenllian on Valentine's day.

THE man whose meeting with Ron Davies on Clapham Common led to the politician's downfall was yesterday sentenced to life for a 'terrifying' attack on a 70-year-old man.

Donald Fearon, 45, and an accomplice burst into the infirm pensioner's home, assaulted and robbed him and also held him at gunpoint and threatened to kill him. The handgun was pressed so hard against the 70-year-old's forehead that it left a bump and a circular cut from the barrel, Inner London Crown Court was told. The elderly man managed to fight off his attackers and stab Fearon in the stomach with a kitchen knife, forcing the pair to run away.

Judge Robert Prendergast sentenced Fearon of Bellingham, south-east London, who had earlier pleaded guilty to all five charges, to life imprisonment for possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life.

For aggravated burglary he received 11 years and three months. For possessing a prohibited weapon and prohibited ammunition he received seven years for each count, and for making threats to kill, the judge said no separate penalty would be given. All the sentences are to run concurrently.

In 1998 Davies, then Labour MP for Caerphilly, stood down as Welsh Secretary after reporting to police that his car had been stolen following an encounter with Fearon. Charges against Fearon were dropped by the Crown Prosecution Service and Fearon told newspapers that he had allegedly arranged for the MP to have gay sex with a friend - and had left the car as security because he had no money.

Davies denied there had been any sexual contact, but said he had been caught up in a "moment of madness". adding "Mr Fearon is a violent man and it was my misfortune to be, as far as I know, one of his first victims. He clearly had a capacity for violence which was demonstrated in his assault on me and his subsequent crimes. It is some consolation that no other people will suffer as a result of this sentence. His violent criminal nature has been finally exposed and dealt with, and I suppose there is a sense of relief."

The court was told that Fearon was jailed for five years at the Old Bailey for a similar assault on a woman psychology lecturer. He was found guilty of making threats to kill, indecent assault and using an imitation firearm after the victim described to jurors how she feared she would be raped.

Judge Prendergast told him, "The facts of this case, and of that other matter, to a lesser degree, leave me in no doubt whatsoever that you pose a significant risk of harm to the public."

Fearon, who had a week's growth of beard on one side of his face while the other was clean shaven, showed no emotion when sentence was passed. The judge recommended he serve at least five-and-a-half years before any parole was considered. He said, "At one stage it was suggested that in putting a bullet back into the chamber (of the gun) you caused this firearm to jam, thereby preventing a more serious indictment of charges being brought against you. Whatever the rights or wrongs against that, you terrified this man."

Ex-Labour politician was filmed 'placing rocks and logs as booby traps' but the 70-year-old claimed the clip showed him 'clearing path, not blocking. He has become embroiled in a row over cyclists on Caerphilly Mountain.

Thirteen years ago he famously claimed he was just 'watching badgers' after being confronted about visiting a notorious gay sex haunt. And shamed ex-Labour politician Davies was accused of naughty business in the woods again, by allegedly sabotaging a mountain cycle path.

The 70-year-old former Welsh Secretary was caught on camera accused of placing rocks and logs on the ground as booby traps to stop cyclists in Caerphilly. Davies admitted he was the man seen bending over the cycle path, but claimed the footage showed him 'clearing' the path rather than blocking it. The former cabinet minister has become embroiled in a row that has broken out on the Caerphilly Mountain over cyclists and residents using the downhill route.

Local walkers and environmentalists are upset at cyclists speeding down the route and taking over the path and making their own jumps. But cyclists say vandals have planted logs and rocks in their way, leaving them facing potential injury. Video footage released shows Davies, now a trustee of the Caerphilly Woodlands Trust, on the path and crouched down in the dark.

But Davies said "I've never blocked or obstructed a footpath in my life. In fact, I've unblocked obstructions on a few and that's what I was doing when this covert video was taken. I was actually removing an obstacle from a footpath. I have spent all my life walking the footpaths in this part of the world. These woodlands are a treasure - there is a tremendous range of wildlife there."

Ian Clarke, from Van Road Mountain Bikers, said "I can appreciate that maybe some people don't agree with the way we use the woods, but I think if you're putting other people in danger, that's a problem for us."

Davies famously quit Tony Blair's cabinet in 1998 after a "moment of madness with a stranger at the well-known gay meeting place of Clapham Common. The politician claimed he met the man while out for a walk in South West London and agreed to go to dinner with him - before he was robbed at knifepoint.

In 2003 he was forced to stand down from the Welsh Assembly after visiting a gay sex haunt off the M4 near Bath - but claimed he was just "watching badgers.