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Dave Lee Travis used fame to target vulnerable young women, court told Dave Lee Travis used fame to target vulnerable young women, court told
(about 9 hours later)
Dave Lee Travis is an "opportunist" who used his fame to target and sexually assault vulnerable young women, a jury has heard. The former Radio 1 DJ Dave Lee Travis is an "opportunist" who used his fame to target and molest vulnerable young women in attacks spread over three decades, a jury has heard.
The former BBC Radio 1 DJ, who is being tried under his real name, David Patrick Griffin, is accused of indecently assaulting 11 young women over three decades at the height of his fame. The 68-year-old broadcaster groped a 19-year-old girl live on Top of the Pops, the court was told, in one of a series of assaults that began at the height of his fame in the mid-1970s.
Opening the prosecution case against Travis at Southwark crown court on Tuesday, Miranda Moore QC told jurors that all the allegations against the former broadcaster "are of a sexual nature and involve unwanted contact … Both over clothing and under clothing". In another incident, the jury was told how a 15-year-old girl feared she was going to be raped when Travis forced himself on her in his VIP trailer at a Showaddywaddy concert in 1978.
Travis has a record of targeting "young women who are vulnerable and he's an opportunist who takes the opportunity when it presents itself to him", Moore told the jury. Travis denies 13 counts of indecent assault and one count of sexual assault, relating to 11 young women, between January 1976 and November 2008.
Travis is charged with 13 counts of indecent assault and one count of sexual assault, relating to 10 women and a 15-year-old girl, between January 1976 and November 2008. Opening the prosecution case at Southwark crown court in London on Tuesday, Miranda Moore QC described Travis as an "opportunist" who has a record of targeting "young women who are vulnerable" at his place of work.
Travis is accused of putting his hand up the skirt and attempting to grab the bottom of a 19-year-old woman on Top of the Pops as he introduced the Smurfs on stage in June 1978. The veteran DJ sat in the dock of the court, listening to proceedings through a hearing loop and at times shaking his head as the barrister told jurors how he indecently assaulted young women while acting in pantomimes, working as a DJ, and at the opening of a hospital radio station.
The jury saw an edited clip of the moment when it is alleged Travis attempted to put his hand inside her knickers as it was broadcast to the nation. "What she's saying is she was assaulted effectively live on Top of the Pops," said Moore. The jury was shown BBC footage of Travis introducing a performance by the Smurfs on the Top of the Pops in June 1978 when he allegedly put his hand up a 19-year-old girl's skirt and inside her knickers, grabbing her bottom. "She was assaulted effectively live on Top of the Pops," said Moore.
Another incident took place in Travis's dressing room as he appeared in a pantomime in Crawley in 1991, the court heard, when the DJ pinned a women up against the door before shoving his hand down her jogging bottoms. Days before that incident on Top of the Pops, Travis invited a 15-year-old girl into his Winnebago at a Showaddywaddy concert on a farm in Gloucestershire, the court heard. After complimenting the teenager on her breasts, Travis began flicking her nipples before removing her top and pinning her down to the banquette to stop her from leaving. "She began to scream," the jury heard. "She was shouting and in her own words she thought he was going to rape her."
The assault lasted a matter of seconds, the jury was told, before Travis was interrupted by one of the Chuckle Brothers walking past his dressing room. Showaddywaddy's lead singer, Dave Bartram, is due to give evidence for the prosecution later in the trial, the court heard.
Moore, for the crown, said the victim had been told that cast members in the pantomime had been told "they should not be left alone with him and should not be in his dressing room at any time". Another incident took place in Travis's dressing room when he was playing the evil wizard Abanazar in the pantomime Aladdin in 1991, the court heard. The broadcaster pressed himself against a woman and shoved his hand down her trousers before being interrupted by one of the Chuckle Brothers walking past his dressing room.
The youngest victim was 15 at the time of the alleged attack, at a Showaddywaddy concert on 17 June 1978 where Travis was making a guest appearance. The girl, whom Moore described as "very young and very naive", went into the former DJ's trailer where he commented on the size of her breasts. The victim reported the incident to the stage manager of the theatre, and was told that female workers "should not be left alone with him and should not be in his dressing room at any time", the court heard.
"I love big boobs," Travis allegedly said, before flicking her nipples and removing her top. He then pinned her to her seat and began to kiss her on the lips and her breasts, the court heard, before running his hand up her skirt. "She began to scream, she was crying and shouting and in her own words she thought he was going to rape her," Moore told jurors. The jury of eight women and four men were told about another incident that happened in the busy office of a local radio station between 2000 and 2003. Travis was a DJ at the station, Chiltern Radio, and was "sexually assaulting" one woman and her colleagues on a "regular basis", the jury heard.
The Showaddywaddy lead singer Dave Bartram is due to give evidence later in the trial, the court heard. Jurors were told how Travis was confronted after slipping his thumb up the skirt and into the knickers of one woman at the station, who screamed at him: "Don't touch me, you're a pervert."
Moore said that Travis, who shook his head and tutted as the crown opened its case against him, repeatedly attacked the victims' allegations as fabricated in interviews with the police. "It appears this is the straw that broke the camel's back," Moore said. "She went ballistic. She made a fuss there and then."
Travis left the radio station shortly after, the court heard, although the broadcaster denies he left because of this incident, despite reports that he had "stormed into the newsroom shouting about false complaints" against him.
Another young woman, who is not included in the indictment against Travis, said the broadcaster had grabbed her breasts when she was deputy carnival princess at the opening of a hospital radio station. "She thought he was a big name and what Dave wanted was what Dave got," Moore told the jury.
Journalists were also targeted by Travis, the court heard. One journalist said she felt "infringed upon and violated" when Travis grabbed her breasts and tried to persuade her to pose for photographs while she was in his kitchen, interviewing him for a newspaper feature. Another journalist complained about him groping her bottom during a tour of his six-bedroomed property, the court heard, which featured an "amateur bikini shot" of the singer Jo O'Meara from S Club 7 on the wall of his recording studio.
In a separate incident in 1992, a British Airways worker told police she was made to feel "embarrassed and powerless" by Travis at a work party, where she won a dancing competition and danced the lambada with the broadcaster as her prize. The jury heard that Travis pressed his body into hers so she could feel his erect penis, before grasping her bottom with both hands and lifting her off the floor.
Travis, who is on trial under his real name, David Patrick Griffin, shook his head at times as the crown described the allegations against him.
The jury heard that Travis described the claims in interviews with police as "absolute crap" and "made-up rubbish" and the victims as fame-hungry women who could "smell money". In one interrogation by officers, Travis said if he had touched a woman's breast in 1971 "he would admit it because it was seen as flirtatious at the time".
"If you live in a sweet shop you don't eat sweets," Travis told detectives in one interview. He said it would have been "insane" to grope anyone in a radio studio, when asked by police about allegations that he touched the breasts of a BBC trainee, aged 24 at the time, as she introduced Woman's Hour live on Radio 4."If you live in a sweet shop you don't eat sweets," Travis told detectives in one interview. He said it would have been "insane" to grope anyone in a radio studio, when asked by police about allegations that he touched the breasts of a BBC trainee, aged 24 at the time, as she introduced Woman's Hour live on Radio 4.
"He said it's degrading to him, this allegation," Moore said, who then quoted him as telling detectives: "It's impossible to keep a straight face about it." The trial, which is due to last up to six weeks, was adjourned until Wednesday.
The court heard that Travis described the claims as being made up by women who wanted to become famous.
The 68-year-old broadcaster, who denies the charges, sat in the dock of the court wearing a beige jacket, blue shirt and colourful tie as he listened to proceedings through a hearing loop.
Moore told jurors that the case arose out of the Jimmy Savile scandal in October 2012, when a number of police forces received reports from women who alleged they were indecently assaulted by Travis.
Travis arrived at court to a media scrum on Tuesday morning, making no comment as he walked past scores of photographers and camera crews penned back behind metal barriers.
A jury of eight women and four men were sworn in before being given strict orders by the judge, Anthony Leonard, not to research the case online or be "intimidated" by the large media presence outside the court building.
The trial continues.
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