DJ Dave Lee Travis to face retrial on sex assault charges
The veteran DJ Dave Lee Travis is facing a retrial on charges of indecent and sexual assault.
Travis, 68, was cleared of 12 counts of indecent assault earlier this month, but jurors at Southwark crown court in London were unable to reach verdicts on two further charges and were discharged.
On Monday, Judge Anthony Leonard heard that prosecutors are seeking a retrial on the two outstanding charges. A further hearing will take place on 28 March.
Outside court, the former BBC presenter said that the news meant his “nightmare is now going to go on”.
In reference to comments he made outside court when he was found not guilty of the 12 charges, he told reporters: “I told you that I’d been through 18 months of a nightmare and apparently I was wrong because the nightmare is now going to go on.
“All I can say is, this whole thing started when I was 67 and I just hope that it’s going to end by the time I’m 80.”
Retrial
Prosecutor Miranda Moore QC told the court: “The prosecution is seeking a retrial for two outstanding counts.” She said a retrial would be likely to last just over two weeks.
The former Top Of The Pops presenter had been accused of indecently assaulting 10 women and sexually assaulting another in alleged incidents dating back to 1976 when he was at the height of his fame.
The jury of eight women and four men had deliberated for more than 20 hours before finding him not guilty of 12 indecent assault charges.
But they were not able to agree on a charge of alleged indecent assault against a woman in the early 1990s along with an alleged sexual assault on a journalist in 2008.
‘Reputation’
Travis was ordered to return to court on 28 March. He was given bail.
Speaking outside the court moments after being found not guilty of the 12 offences, Travis said the case had cost him his reputation along with so much money that he has had to sell his house.
Travis, who went on trial under his birth name David Griffin, said: “I don’t feel like there is a victory in any way, shape or form.
“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.”
Marianne, Travis’s wife of more than 40 years, supported him from the public gallery during the latest brief hearing.
She was in court for the verdicts on February 13 but did not attend the four weeks of evidence.
