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Dave Lee Travis found not guilty on 12 charges of indecent assault Dave Lee Travis found not guilty: Verdict on veteran DJ leaves Operation Yewtree bereft of credibility
(about 4 hours later)
Veteran DJ Dave Lee Travis has been found not guilty of 12 indecent assault charges and the jury at London's Southwark Crown Court has failed to reach verdicts on two other charges. The decision to prosecute historic sex abuse cases involving celebrity defendants has been called into question after veteran DJ Dave Lee Travis was acquitted of 12 sexual assault charges in the first high-profile trial brought by Operation Yewtree.
After 20 hours of deliberation, the jury found Travis not guilty of 12 charges but were unable to return verdicts on one further charge of indecent assault and one of sexual assault, and were discharged. The near-full courtroom vindication for the 68-year-old former Radio 1 DJ came in the first criminal trial brought after a £3m police investigation into historic sex abuse cases that stemmed from the exposure of Jimmy Savile as one of the country’s most prolific paedophiles.
Travis, 68, denied all charges against him during the four-week trial. The alleged incidents dated back to between 1976 and 2003. Mr Travis’s legal team claimed that the DJ was targeted as a scapegoat after police and prosecutors missed numerous opportunities to bring Savile to justice during his decades of crime. The former Radio 1 DJ said he had lost his home and his reputation, in a case that his legal team claimed had been a witch-hunt based on a lie.
Speaking outside of the court, he said: "I'm not over the moon about any of this today. I don't feel like there is a victory in any way, shape or form. Flanked by Marianne, his wife of more than 40 years, Mr Travis told reporters outside court that he had been through “a year and a half of hell on this which included costing me so much money to pay out for my part of this trial”. “Lots of people are worse off than me; however I did lose my reputation as well which I may try to get back later,” he added.
"On the contrary, I think you already know that I have been through a year and a half of hell on this which included costing me so much money to pay out for my part of this trial, proving the point that not all famous people have got loads in the bank. Prosecutors will now have to decide if they will press for a retrial for two charges on which the jury could not decide verdicts: an alleged indecent assault on a stagehand in his dressing room while he appeared in the pantomime Aladdin in the early 1990s, and an alleged sexual assault on a journalist who interviewed him at his home in Mentmore, Buckinghamshire, in 2008. From the outset, Mr Travis has denied the allegations against him and claimed that he was “tactile” by nature. “If I like someone I will hug them and give them a kiss because the whole world needs that,” he told the court. “But nowadays you can’t do that apparently,” adding that half of the country would be in jail by now “if patting somebody’s bottom in the 1970s was a crime”.
"Therefore I had to sell my house in order to do it, but that's OK, I'm not moaning because there are lots of people worse off than me. However, I did lose my reputation as well, which I may try and get back later." The case – which follows the acquittal of Coronation Street actor Bill Roache last week – will inevitably lead to questions as to the ability of the criminal justice system to secure convictions in cases involving high-profile figures with allegations that in some cases go back decades.
Jurors found him not guilty of groping a teenager in his Radio 1 studio in the 1970s, a 15-year-old girl at a Showaddywaddy concert in 1978, and a teenage music fan during an episode of Top Of The Pops in 1978. Mr Travis’s barrister, Stephen Vullo, told jurors the defendant’s name had been sullied because police and the authorities had missed catching Savile. “There is no justice whatsoever in overreaction, bringing a 68-year-old man of impeccable character to this court and muddying his name to make us feel better about Jimmy Savile,” he told the court.
He was also cleared of grabbing the breasts of a Radio 4 announcer in the early 1980s, a teenager in his motorhome at a gig in 1983, and a young hotel worker in Bude, Cornwall, in 1984. Sixteen men have been arrested under Operation Yewtree, which was set up after an ITV documentary that exposed Savile led to hundreds of people coming forward with further allegations of abuse.
The other charges he was found not guilty of were two counts of assaulting a British Airways worker in the 1990s and four that related to two women he worked with when he had a slot on Classic Gold radio in the early 2000s. Files have been handed to prosecutors in 11 of the cases, which have resulted in seven being discontinued. Trials are scheduled to start in the next two months of the publicist Max Clifford and the entertainer Rolf Harris, with other people remaining on bail while investigations continue.
However, jurors failed to reach verdicts on the alleged indecent assault of a woman working on a pantomime in the early 1990s along with an alleged sexual assault on a journalist who interviewed him at his home in 2008. The first man who was due to stand trial after a Yewtree investigation was found dead on the day the case was due to go to court last year. David Smith, 66, a former driver reputedly for the BBC, was a prolific paedophile with 22 previous convictions, who was due to answer allegations that he had raped a 12-year-old boy in the 1980s.
He was allowed to remain seated as the verdicts were passed and listened with the aid of headphones, as he had done during the four weeks of evidence. He showed no reaction as the verdicts were read out, looking straight ahead. Prosecutors declined to comment on the Travis case before a hearing later this month which will decide whether he will face a retrial. David Cameron’s official spokesman said the Prime Minister continued to have confidence in the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) in light of the not guilty verdicts for both Mr Travis and Mr Roache.
His wife Marianne supported him from the public gallery as the verdicts were announced but did not show any emotion. Operation Yewtree split its investigations into three strands into those involving Savile, those with Savile and others and those into allegations independent of Savile. Although Mr Travis knew Savile, he was investigated under the “others” strand that has led to the arrests of most of the high-profile suspects in the inquiry. Speaking outside court, Detective Chief Superintendent Keith Niven, who is leading Operation Yewtree, encouraged all victims to come forward and pledged “our commitment to support anyone who has been subjected to sexual abuse”.
She sat next to Margaret Merritt, Travis's personal assistant in the 1970s, who gave evidence as a defence witness. Sixteen women gave evidence against Mr Travis during the trial. The charges, which related to 11 of the women, went back nearly 40 years with the latest in 2008.
Judge Anthony Leonard thanked the jury before discharging them and told Travis he would be bailed on the same conditions as before. “The Metropolitan Police take all allegations of sexual abuse very seriously,” said Det Chief Supt Niven.
"I understand, thank you," Travis replied before leaving the dock. “We fully investigate every case and once sufficient evidence is obtained investigators work with CPS lawyers and a decision whether to charge is made. In the case of Mr Griffin, the prosecution was brought, he was tried and the jury reached their decision.”
Asked by reporters if he was delighted by the result as he walked out of court, he said: "No, I'm not delighted at all." Human rights barrister, Barbara Hewson, questioned whether defendants such as Travis could have a fair trial given the time that has passed since the allegations.
During the trial, when giving evidence Travis told jurors he was not a "sexual predator" and the claims against him were "nonsensical". “The original Yewtree operation was set up as a response to a moral panic created by the scandal of Jimmy Savile, the one person who cannot answer to anything,” she said.
"I do not have a predatory nature with women", he said, "I have a cuddly nature.
"If there have been some sexual interactions in the past, it's been consensual."
The defendant was supported by a host of defence witnesses during the case, including Chuckle Brothers Barry and Paul Elliott, Patricia "Dee Dee" Wilde of Top Of The Pops dance troupe Pan's People, and former colleagues at the BBC and elsewhere.
Travis was tried under his real name David Patrick Griffin.
There will be a further hearing at the same court on 24 February to decide if there should be a retrial of the two outstanding charges.
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Additional reporting by Press Association