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Dave Lee Travis assault caused woman '40 years of hell' | |
(about 2 hours later) | |
A woman who was allegedly assaulted by Dave Lee Travis says the incident caused her "40 years of hell". | |
The veteran BBC DJ was alone with the then 19-year-old at the opening of a hospital radio station in 1973 when he put his hand up her skirt and groped her, Southwark Crown Court heard. | |
Mr Travis, 68, denies 13 indecent assaults and one sexual assault. | Mr Travis, 68, denies 13 indecent assaults and one sexual assault. |
The woman broke down while giving evidence, saying the assault left her scared to go out alone. | |
She said Mr Travis - whose real name is David Griffin - had a "haunting look" on his face when he touched her. | |
After the incident she felt "ashamed" and "frightened" and avoided watching the star on television, she told the court. | |
"He screwed a lot of my life up," she said of the former Top of the Pops presenter. | |
The woman - who was raised a strict Catholic - said her late husband never knew that the alleged assault had affected the couple's love life. | |
"When he put his arms around me, I'd freeze," she said. | |
'Engulfed me' | |
Earlier, the trial heard from a former theatre stage hand who said Mr Travis had only stopped assaulting her when one of the Chuckle Brothers spoke outside a dressing room door. | |
The woman said Mr Travis attacked her in his dressing room, holding the door shut while he was appearing in a Christmas pantomime performance of Aladdin. | |
The show also starred Barry and Paul Elliot, better known as the Chuckle Brothers. | |
The woman, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, told the court: "I was about to go and he was suddenly behind me. | |
"He's a big chap and he engulfed me and he had his hand on the door above me. | |
"He put his other hand down the front of my jogging bottoms." | |
She said she struggled to escape and managed to open the door slightly despite his superior strength. | |
"I heard someone say 'All right, Dave', at which point he released me," she said. | |
The woman said the voice belonged to one of the Chuckle Brothers, who were walking along the corridor towards the dressing room. | |
She said she told a supervisor about the incident, which had left her "confused and scared", and it was agreed that she would not have to enter Mr Travis's dressing room again. | |
But she said she did not report the assault because she feared she would lose her job. | |
"We decided that because it was my first job in theatre it wouldn't be me who was going to be believed," she said. | |
"I think I felt that even if someone believed me... it still wouldn't be me that kept my job." | |
The incident allegedly happened in the early 1990s when the victim was 21. | |
'Deaf ears' | |
The court also heard Mr Travis squeezed a BBC camerawoman's bottom during a recording of Top of the Pops in the early 1980s. | |
The witness, whose claims are not part of the charges Mr Travis faces, said it was "sustained touching". | |
She said Mr Travis later gave her a "tight" and "unnatural" hug and said the words "beautiful woman". | She said Mr Travis later gave her a "tight" and "unnatural" hug and said the words "beautiful woman". |
After this alleged incident, the witness said she made sure she never again worked on Top of the Pops when Mr Travis was on the show. | After this alleged incident, the witness said she made sure she never again worked on Top of the Pops when Mr Travis was on the show. |
"I just got away from him as fast as I could," she said. | "I just got away from him as fast as I could," she said. |