'Carnival princess was groped by star DJ Dave Lee Travis on Top of the Pops to the sound of The Smurfs'
- Former Radio 1 DJ faces 14 charges dating between 1976 and 2008
- One assault is alleged to have taken place while 'opportunistic' Travis was opening a hospital radio station
- Jury hears Travis touched 15-year-old's breast at Showaddywaddy concert
- When Travis, 68, was playing an 'evil wizard' in a pantomime he 'attacked a theatre worker but stopped when a Chuckle Brother walked past'
- DJ 'groped student he'd told to keep watch and called her "securi-titty"'
Allegations: Dave Lee Travis leaving Southwark Crown Court after being accused of assaulting nearly a dozen women over three decades
Dave Lee Travis was accused yesterday of sexually assaulting a teenager in front of the cameras on Top of the Pops during 30 years of abuse.
The former Radio 1 DJ was branded a sexual predator who used his celebrity status to target vulnerable young women.
He preyed on his victims at radio studios, corporate events, a hotel, a Christmas pantomime and in his trailer at an open air concert and university gig, it was claimed.
Other evidence that will be put before the jury includes that of a carnival princess groped in 1973 after being told ‘what Dave wanted was what Dave got’ at a hospital radio launch.
The 68-year-old was an ‘opportunist’ who crept up on unsuspecting women and plunged his hand into their underwear or grabbed their breasts, the court heard.
Many of the ‘disgusted’ women, often in junior roles or at the fledgling stage of sought-after careers in media, were too scared to speak out.
But they came forward years later after watching him ‘profess his blameless character’ on TV within hours of two victims making claims against him in the Daily Mail.
In one of the most extraordinary allegations, Travis was accused of assaulting a 19-year-old as he filmed an episode of Top of the Pops in 1978.
A short clip of the star introducing a novelty song by the Smurfs was shown to the jury at Southwark Crown Court.
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Prosecutors claim the DJ put his hand up the skirt and touched the bottom of a pretty teenager during the introduction.
The girl was ‘angry and upset’ but when she returned home to watch the show with her best friend the assault had been edited out.
Leaving: The former DJ at the end of the first day of evidence in his indecent assault trial
Prosecutor Miranda Moore QC said women ‘from all parts of the UK’ had come forward to complain about his behaviour.
‘These crimes are alleged to have taken place in a work environment,’ she told the jury. ‘They all show a propensity towards young women who are vulnerable and he is an opportunist and he takes the opportunity when it presents itself.’
The case involves 11 women who claim Travis – real name David Patrick Griffin – indecently assaulted them between 1976 and 2008.
Trial: DJ Dave Lee Travis arrives at Southwark Crown Court for the start of his trial on 12 charges of indecent assault and one of sexual assault
The grey-haired and bespectacled DJ, wearing a hearing aid, snorted and shook his head as the allegations were made against him. He told police the charges against him are ‘degrading’ and accused the women of being fantasists who can ‘smell money’.
In one interview he told officers he had many offers from women but was a happily married man, adding: ‘If you live in a sweet shop you don’t eat sweets.’
The jury heard the youngest victim, a 15-year-old farmer’s daughter, was indecently assaulted after Travis invited her to his trailer at a Showaddywaddy concert in June 1978.
The ‘naïve’ girl ran into Travis who told her ‘I love big boobs’ before allegedly ‘flicking’ her nipples, pulling up her top and kissing her chest.
‘She had no means of escape and started to scream, cry and shout and her thoughts were that he was going to rape her,’ Mrs Moore said. ‘She was terrified.’
The woman told no one until 34 years later when Travis was caught in the middle of a media storm.
Claims: Travis has been accused of assaulting young women while working as a DJ and acting in pantomime
More than 12 years later the DJ was accused of assaulting an assistant as he played the role of evil wizard Abanazar in Aladdin, in Crawley, West Sussex. The jury heard he pinned the woman against the door of his dressing room, forcing his hand down the front of her jogging bottoms.
She escaped by managing to slightly open the door as one of the Chuckle Brothers comedy duo, who were also in the pantomime, passed by.
The first attack allegedly took place in 1976 or 1977 when Travis ground his groin against an 18-year-old BBC archivist while playing a ‘smoochy’ song on air.
Travis is also accused of ‘jiggling’ the breasts of a 24-year-old BBC colleague as she was introducing Woman’s Hour some time between 1981 and 1983.
Plea: Travis denies all the charges against him, which date between 1976 and 2008
The victim did not report what happened as she felt ‘nothing would be done about it’ as he was a ‘major DJ and she just wanted to keep her job’, the jury was told.
The next alleged attack was at Nottingham Polytechnic when Travis attended a student union event between January 1983 and March 1984.
The victim, then 19, claims he pinned her to the door of his campervan as he kissed her, attempting to put his tongue in her mouth.
In 1983 or 1984, Travis is accused of assaulting a receptionist in his room at a hotel in Bude, Cornwall, as he toured the country with Radio 1.
He allegedly molested a British Airways worker in the early 1990s, pressing himself against her while dancing the lambada and putting his hand up her skirt.
Media: Potential jurors have been warned not to pay any attention to the public interest in the case
Travis is accused of groping two women while working at Chiltern FM for three years until 2003. One eventually snapped when he pushed his hand up her skirt, screaming, ‘Don’t touch me – you are a pervert,’ the court heard.
A young woman from a national newspaper, sent to Travis’s Buckinghamshire mansion in 2008 to interview him, accuses him of placing both hands on her chest for a few seconds.
Travis denies 13 counts of indecent assault and one of sexual assault. The case continues.
Hearing: Travis pictured leaving the court yesterday after a pre-trial hearing in his assault case
Heyday: Travis pictured in the 1970s when he was at the height of his fame as a DJ and presenter
- Freddie Starr was arrested for a third time over alleged historical sexual offences yesterday.
The comedian, 71, was quizzed about the fresh claims at a police station in Warwickshire.
He was first arrested in November 2012 and then in April 2013 over further allegations.
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