Dave Lee Travis 'Was Snogging My Face Off.. I Thought I Was Going To Be Raped', Woman Tells Court

DLT 'Started Snogging My Face Off.. I Was Petrified'

A "petrified" woman has told how she thought she was going to be raped by DJ Dave Lee Travis when she was 15 at a Showaddywaddy concert, a court heard.

The alleged victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said the former Radio 1 DJ became "frisky" with her after she was invited into his caravan at the gig on a farm in the late 1970s.

In a videoed police interview played to the court, the woman said she was talking about music with Travis inside the caravan when he offered to sign her poster.

Former radio and TV presenter Dave Lee Travis at Southwark Crown Court

He then "lunged forward", she said.

"He started snogging my face off," she said. "He got his hand up my shirt and pulled my bra up.

"He was just all over my boobs. He was so heavy I was trapped in the seat. I could not get up.

"I thought he was going to rape me."

The woman told police Travis then "suddenly" got up and told her to leave before she hitch-hiked home.

Asked how she felt during the incident, she replied: "Petrified."

Travis, whose real name is David Patrick Griffin, is charged with 13 counts of indecent assault dating back to between 1976 and 2003, and one count of sexual assault in 2008.

The 68-year-old, from Buckinghamshire, is accused of assaulting 11 women, one of whom was 15 at the time of the alleged crime.

He denies all the charges.

Going over the evidence again, the witness, who described herself as "a big girl", said she thought she briefly saw fellow DJ Dave "Kid" Jensen in Travis's trailer before the alleged incident but could not be sure.

Once inside the trailer, the witness recalled how Travis "stank" during their meeting, having smelt of alcohol and cigarettes.

"He (Travis) said he had never seen boobs as big as that before and that he would know," the witness said.

"I started feeling very awkward, then he started touching me.

"He flicked my boobs over my clothing.

"I thought he was going to rape me."

Travis sighed as the woman's interview with police was played to London's Southwark Crown Court.

"He put his hand up my skirt, to my thigh," she said.

"I was crying, I was shouting at him to stop - then he did.

"I don't know whether he had a conscience.

"He stopped and told me I should get dressed. He realised he wasn't going to get anywhere with me."

She said she felt "petrified".

Travis shook his head repeatedly during the evidence and appeared to mutter something.

The witness described herself as "naive" at the time of the incident.

"I was a naive 15-year-old, it was my first sexual experience," she said.

"I lived on a farm and I didn't have many social skills."

The woman said she had initially lied to her parents in order to walk eight miles with her home-made Showaddywaddy poster and attend the gig.

She told police: "It (the alleged incident) was what I deserved because I told a lie."

The woman said she ran home and hid in her bed after the incident.

She did not tell anybody about it until two weeks before going to the police, as a middle-aged adult, she said.

The woman said she was "star-struck" by Travis when she first met him as a teenager, but said she now regarded him as "a disgusting old man - a pervert".

During cross-examination, Stephen Vullo, defending Travis, said: "I'm going to suggest to you that none of this ever happened. What do you say to that?"

"I'd say that's untrue because it did," she replied.

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