Dave Lee Travis trial jury selected

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/jan/13/dave-lee-travis-trial-jury-selected

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Jurors have been selected in the trial of Dave Lee Travis, the former BBC Radio 1 DJ accused of sexually assaulting 11 women in offences spanning three decades.

Travis will be tried on Tuesday under his real name David Patrick Griffin at Southwark crown court, London, for up to six weeks.

He is charged with 13 counts of indecent assault and one count of sexual assault relating to 11 women, including a 15-year-old girl, between January 1976 and November 2008.

The 68-year-old broadcaster, who has consistently denied the charges, is the first suspect to be tried under Scotland Yard's Operation Yewtree investigation, launched in the wake of the Jimmy Savile scandal in October 2012.

On Monday, a panel of 18 potential jurors were selected for the trial before they are whittled down to 12 and sworn in on Tuesday morning.

The judge, Anthony Leonard, said jurors were not allowed to try the case if they, or a close friend or relative, worked for either the BBC, Chiltern Radio, Classic Gold FM or on Operation Yewtree.

The potential jurors were also given a list of witnesses and asked to inform the judge if they knew any of them.

"The defendant is known as David Griffin but he was also known as Dave Lee Travis, which is a name that may or may not be familiar to you, depending on your own age," Leonard told the potential jurors.

He said earlier: "This case involves allegations of a series of indecent assaults and it is likely that you will find it an interesting case to try."

Leonard warned the potential jurors not to research the case – using the internet or any other method – before sending them away with instructions to return to Southwark crown court for 11am on Tuesday.

Travis sat in the glass-enclosed dock of the court for the hearing on Monday, listening to proceedings through a pair of earphones after complaining that he could not hear.

One of the most recognisable voices on the airwaves, Travis rose to fame as one of the first DJs on BBC Radio 1 in the late 1960s and went on to present Top of the Pops in the 1970s and 1980s.

The DJ was removed from the airwaves by his most recent employer, Magic FM, when he was arrested on 15 November 2012. His arrest was one of the first made by detectives from Operation Yewtree.

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