Dave Lee Travis rejects claims he has predatory nature

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/jan/27/dave-lee-travis-old-bailey

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Dave Lee Travis has rejected the idea that he has a predatory attitude towards women, insisting that he merely possesses a "cuddly nature" which involves hugging and kissing those of whom he is fond, he told a court on Monday.

The former Radio 1 DJ, who denies a series of accusations of indecent assaults against 11 women spanning more than 30 years, conceded that his tactile habits could be misinterpreted in the modern era, but insisted he would never have acted in an inappropriate way.

As his defence case opened at Southwark crown court with testimony which included numerous anecdotes from his career, including an incident in which he set fire to a fellow DJ's script live on Radio 1, Travis rejected the claims of two of his accusers.

Asked about an alleged incident in which the 68-year-old is accused of moving his hands up the skirt of a then radio journalist as she sat on a desk in the middle of a busy office, Travis called it "made-up nonsense", saying the worst that could have happened was that his knees touched the woman's as they argued.

Questioned by his defence counsel, Stephen Vullo, Travis, on trial under his real name, David Patrick Griffin, denied that, as a big star, he felt he could do what he wanted.

"I don't have a predatory nature with women," Travis said. "I do have a cuddly nature with women. Maybe that's what this is all about, but I am not predatory.

"If I really like someone, I might put my arms around them and given a peck on the cheek. Nowadays you can't do that sort of thing, apparently. It's an unfortunate trait, apparently."

Travis also rejected another woman's evidence that he stood behind her and groped her breasts as she introduced Women's Hour live on air on Radio 4 in the early 1980s.

"No, I didn't. I am at as bit of a loss to understand it, to be honest," he said of the accusation. Travis said any such assault could have been seen by technical staff and led to him being "hauled up before the big bosses" and possibly sacked.

"You just don't take chances like that," he said, also contrasting the more staid atmosphere of Radio 4 with the "roughneck pirates" of Radio 1. As an example of the atmosphere at Radio 1, where Travis was a DJ from 1969 to 1993, he recalled setting fire to a script being held by then-colleague Alan Freeman as the latter read out the weekly chart rundown. "He read it, burning, and professionalism went on," Travis recalled. "He didn't sue me for burnt fingers."

Travis said that he was a keen photographer who took many photographs of women, including some nude or partially nude, saying: "Women just have such fantastic shapes and I want to utilise those shapes.

"First of all, I like women. I don't just mean that because they are very sexy. I mean that for a variety of reasons. I think they are wonderful."

Earlier, the court was told that Travis raged at police and the justice system while interviewed by detectives last year, saying he had been "screwed backwards" by false claims.

Travis said he believed more alleged victims were coming forward for financial motives after reading about earlier claims against him.

One woman who worked for British Airways claimed Travis had assaulted her at a staff Christmas party in 1992 by making her sit on his knee and moving his hand up her legs to "flick" her underwear. When police asked him about the incident, he replied: "They can smell money. This is just someone else jumping into the game to see what they can get out of it.

"Why not say something then? Why wait 20 years until it comes out in one-sided press coverage?" Travis told police, the court heard.

The junior prosecutor Teresa Hay, reading out a transcript of the interview to the court, said Travis described being "full of anger" at the series of allegations. Travis said the claims had cost him his job and left him ill and stressed, and liable to cry at night.

He said his wife, Marianne, who was recovering from breast cancer, was at that moment rearranging furniture to see if it would fit into the smaller house to which they were being forced to move because of the cost of legal fees.

"This has cost him his job, his living and everything he has built up over 50 years. These allegations don't stand up," Travis, speaking in the third person, was reported as telling police.

"He has been screwed backwards. He's selling his house to pay for solicitors and barristers. People might think he's a millionaire but his bank account is non-existent. His life has changed. If this case is acquitted he won't be free. He is fucked.

Travis denies 13 counts of indecent assault and one count of sexual assault involving 11 women between 1976 and 2008. The trial continues.