Dave Lee Travis guilty of indecent assault

The former BBC radio DJ was found guilty of indecently assaulting a female working on the Mrs Merton Show in 1995. The jury convicted him by a majority verdict of 10-2.

Travis, 69, who was tried under his real name, David Griffin, was found not guilty on two other 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.

The jury of six men and six women reached their verdicts after 19 hours and 15 minutes. As the verdicts were read out, Travis stared straight ahead with a stony expression.

Giving his own evidence, the veteran DJ denied the claims, telling jurors the women had been lying.

He also called on a host of other defence witnesses, which heard him described as the “perfect gentleman”.

Mrs Merton Show

Travis was convicted of groping a female member of the production crew working on the Mrs Merton Show. Prosecutors claimed Travis approached the woman as she stood smoking in the corridor and put his hands on her chest for at least 10 seconds until she ran away.

The woman approached police with the allegations following Travis’s first indecent assault trial earlier this year.

He was cleared of 12 counts of indecent assault at his original trial in February, but faced a retrial on two counts, on which a jury was unable to reach verdicts at the original trial.

‘No guilt by association’

As he summed up the evidence last Wednesday, Judge Leonard had told the jury to forget about allegations against other celebrities in the wake of the Jimmy Savile scandal as they deliberated their verdicts.

Referring to the fact that the investigation into Travis was part of Operation Yewtree, the inquiry set up two years ago in the wake of the Savile scandal, the judge said: “There is no such thing as guilt or innocence by association.

“It follows that you will try this defendant on the evidence in this case and ignore as irrelevant any allegations which have been made against others, or the results of trials they have faced.”

Sophie Wood, defending, told the judge they would be asking for Travis to be given a non-custodial community order sentence. She said: “It is the defence position that we will seek to persuade your honour that this is a community order penalty.”

Judge Leonard adjourned sentencing until 10am on Friday at Southwark Crown Court.