Dave Lee Travis Accused Of Sexually Abusing BBC Trainee Live On Air

DJ Dave Lee Travis has been accused of sexually abusing a BBC trainee while she was broadcasting live on BBC Radio 4, his trial has heard. The woman she had been frightened she would mess up the announcement and could not tell her bosses as Travis was a "big star."

The former DJ, 68, whose real name is David Griffin, denies indecently assaulting 11 victims between 1976 and 2008. He denies 13 counts of indecent assault and one of sexual assault.

Giving evidence behind a curtain, the first witness said Mr Travis had walked into the studio as she was about to go on air on Radio 4 in the early 1980s and sat behind her as she read out the time.

"His hands came round under my arm pits and he put one hand on each breast," she said. "He started to move my breasts up and down."

Asked by prosecutor Miranda Moore QC how she felt at the time, the woman replied, "Well I imagine there was a feeling of sort of panic. Radio 4 is a very serious network. I was making a serious announcement. I was just frightened I was going to mess up the announcement."

Asked why she didn't make a complaint at the time, the woman explained, "There was no way I was going to start telling off this big star of Radio 1. If I had gone to the management, I imagine it would have been 'So what? You're a big girl, deal with it,'"

A second witness, based at Chiltern Radio from 2000-2004, said she was assaulted on her first day.

"Dave Lee Travis got up and he came over, was introduced to me, and the first thing he did was kiss me on the cheek, put both arms around me like a bear hug, which did not feel right.

"He let go of one hand, and with the other started to rub the side of my body. He was touching my breast. He was holding my body."

The second woman said that she "absolutely snapped" after another incident and a manager had to pull them apart. She said that Mr Travis had become very aggressive when she called him a pervert.

The trial is expected to last up to six weeks.