Dave Lee Travis acted as if he had 'perfect right' to grope women, jury told
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Version 0 of 1. Veteran DJ Dave Lee Travis acted as if he had the "perfect right" to grope young women, a court has heard. The 69-year-old former Radio 1 DJ inappropriately touched several women who were many years younger than him during a period spanning more than two decades, a jury at Southwark crown court in London was told on Friday. Travis, who has been charged under his real name David Griffin, is being tried on three charges. He faces a retrial on two counts – one of indecent assault of a woman between 1 November 1990 and 31 January 1991, and another of sexual assault on a different woman between 1 June 2008 and 30 November 2008 – on which a jury was unable to reach verdicts at a trial earlier this year. He has also pleaded not guilty to an additional count of indecent assault alleged to have taken place on 17 January 1995. Opening the trial, Miranda Moore QC, prosecuting, told a jury of six men and six women: "In 2012, Operation Yewtree was set up and its major incident room received complaints referring to sexual assaults allegedly committed by a man that the complainants knew as Dave Lee Travis. "The allegations began to arrive at about the time of an airing of a television exposé of Jimmy Savile. It was on October 12 2012, although prior to that exposé some of the newspapers had published the fact that there was about to be this television programme exposing Mr Savile. "A number of women came forward after this defendant indicated on television and radio that he, Dave Lee Travis, was innocent of any such behaviour." Moore said the allegations spanned from 1985 to 2008 and were alleged to have taken place when Travis was working as a DJ or entertainer, such as starring in a pantomime or as a guest celebrity, or in his own home as he was being interviewed. The prosecutor said: "The offences that you are going to consider vary in seriousness. They involved unwanted physical contact over and under clothing. "We say … he has a propensity towards laying his hands in a sexual manner on young women who are alone with him or in vulnerable positions. He is an opportunist." Moore said the jury would hear from three women to whom the charges relate, as well as two other women who would describe similar incidents to support the descriptions of Travis's alleged behaviour "Five different incidents, five different times, but five similar sorts of behaviour," she told the court. Moore added: "Generally speaking, you will hear evidence that the ladies concerned were in their early 20s or 30s, with this defendant being older by many years when it happened, probably 20 years-plus. The defendant, according to these ladies, simply seemed to act as if he had a perfect right to touch their breasts or put his hands in their clothing to grope them." She said the women felt upset, embarrassed, shocked and unsure what to do because Travis was a celebrity and they were younger and in no position to make a complaint. Outlining the allegations, Moore said the first charge related to a woman who was working on a production of Aladdin in which Travis was starring. She said the woman, who was in her 20s at the time, claimed the DJ assaulted her while they were alone in his dressing room, holding the door closed as he put his hand inside her trousers. She managed to prise open the door to the corridor – where the Chuckle Brothers comedians were standing – and escape, the court heard. Moore said the woman informed colleagues of the incident and was told she did not have to return to Travis's dressing room. Travis dismissed her allegations as "utter nonsense", the court heard. The second charge related to an alleged assault by Travis on a young woman working on the Mrs Merton Show. Moore said Travis approached the woman in the corridor where she was smoking, commenting on her "poor little lungs". It is claimed he put his hands on her chest for at least 10-15 seconds until she backed away down the corridor. Her first thought was: "Oh my God, Dave Lee Travis has got his hands on my breasts", the court heard, and she went and told another member of staff in virtually the same words. She was "mildly hysterical" at the time, the court heard, and the pair ended up laughing about "the absurdity of the situation". In a third count, Travis is alleged to have groped a female journalist when she went to his home to interview him. He touched her chest, holding his hands there for several seconds, the court heard. She later told her flatmates and her mother but did not take it any further because she did not want to jeopardise her career, Moore said. The prosecutor also outlined claims from two other women – to which charges are not related. One woman claimed she was assaulted by Travis as she served him drinks at a venue on the Isle of Man, when he pinned her against a wall and put one hand on her chest and one between her legs. She was "dumbfounded", the court heard, and said something like "Don't touch me", pushing him away and leaving. She told a security guard, and later her husband, but both told her Travis was "just messing about", Moore said. Another woman, also a journalist, claims that Travis assaulted her while she was at his house to interview him. Moore told the jury that Travis, who was arrested on 24 October 2012, had denied all of the incidents, saying none of them had happened. "He has suggested that possibly the women have come forward motivated by greed or compensation or possibly fame," she said. "He has not thought to say that any of these incidents was consensual or that he made an honest mistake or that it was a joke. "When spoken to by police he was adamant that he knows where the line is drawn and how one should behave and he never crossed it." Travis, wearing a dark jacket and patterned tie, listened intently to the prosecution opening, occasionally shaking his head. But Moore said all three women to whom the charges relate had complained to others about the alleged assaults at the time, not after the Jimmy Savile scandal emerged. She said: "Essentially, his defence is this never happened; it is made-up, fabricated, lies – whatever expression you want to use, that's what he says. Ladies and gentlemen, I have already said to you that you are going to have to consider what these ladies say happened, when they told people about it, and why there was no report to the police at the time. "The one thing the three ladies on the indictment did do was to complain to somebody at the time. These are not allegations that have come out after the Jimmy Savile exposé . These allegations were made to co-workers or friends, or in one case flatmates and mum, at the time." |