DJ Travis denies carrying out pantomime sex attack
VETERAN DJ Dave Lee Travis has flatly denied claims he would sexually attack anyone at a pantomime because he is not a “moron”.
Speaking for the first time from the witness box in his sex offences trial at London’s Southwark Crown Court, Travis said: “It doesn’t bear thinking about to be honest.”
He told the jury: “The thought of sexually attacking someone as part of that team is just not something you would want to do. You would have to be a complete moron to do that – something that I am hoping that no-one is going to suggest is that I am a moron.”
He said that he enjoyed playing a baddie, saying: “I relish it, there is nothing better than going on stage and saying ‘I hate kids’.”
Travis said that pinching someone’s bottom was a line he had not crossed.
The former Radio 1 star told the jury he was “tactile” but denied being an oppor- tunist who took his chance to touch young women.
Travis, who has been a household name since the 1970s, said there was a culture of friendliness in the world of showbusiness.
Asked by his barrister Stephen Vullo if he ever crossed the line, he said: “No I am not going to go up to a strange person and pinch their bottom – it’s just not going to happen – or any other part of them.”
Mr Vullo also asked if he was tactile and if this was a problem. Travis said: “Yes very much so. I am tactile with everybody – men, women, certainly women, anyone – because it’s just a natural thing for me.”
Mr Vullo asked how he would react if he accidentally touched someone inappropriately, perhaps on the breasts. Travis said he would apologise, adding: “I would not sneakily want to touch someone and walk away – it is just not done.”
Travis, 69, who is charged under his real name David Griffin, denies two counts of indecent assault and one of sexual assault.
He is facing a retrial on two counts – one of indecent assault of a woman between November 1, 1990 and January 31, 1991, and another of sexual assault on a different woman between June 1 and November 30, 2008 – on which a jury was unable to reach verdicts at a trial earlier this year.
Travis, of Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, has also pleaded not guilty to an additional count of indecent assault alleged to have taken place on January 17, 1995.
The trial continues.