Dave Lee Travis: I’m not a sexual predator

The former Radio 1 presenter walked free from court yesterday despite being found guilty of groping a young researcher behind the scenes at the Mrs Merton Show.

He was sentenced to three months in prison suspended for two years by Judge Anthony Leonard QC at London’s Southwark Crown Court.

Outside court, Travis, 69, said: “Whilst I’m relieved I’ve been able to prove I’m not a sexual predator, I’m mortified and I’m really disappointed that I was convicted of one count.”

He added: “It’s of little comfort to me that I was acquitted of so many others.”

Addressing reporters, Travis said: “Two years ago, I was accused out of the blue of being a sexual predator. Never before that date had anyone ever suggested to me that I’d committed a crime whatsoever.

“With millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money, thousands of hours of police resources, the judge accepted today that the Crown had failed to prove their case against me – namely, that I was a sexual predator.

“I’ve always been worried, as have my close family and friends, that if the prosecution threw enough mud at me, some of it might stick.”

He went on: “Those closest to me, including my wife Marianne, have been by my side all the time. We all know the truth and I’m grateful for that.”

Travis’s trial heard that the former Top of the Pops presenter got a “weird sexual thrill” when he indecently assaulted the woman, who is now a successful TV personality, in 1995.

The DJ cornered the woman in the corridor of a BBC television studio where she was smoking, and commented on her “poor little lungs” before squeezing her breasts.

Travis was found not guilty on a second indecent assault charge and the jury was discharged after it was unable to agree a verdict on a count of sexual assault.

He faced a retrial after jurors failed to reach verdicts on those two charges earlier this year. He was cleared of 12 counts of indecent assault at his original trial.

Travis, of Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, was first arrested in 2012 under Operation Yewtree, Scotland Yard’s investigation into sexual abuse in the wake of allegations against the late DJ Jimmy Savile.

Sentencing Travis, Judge Leonard said the DJ’s offence was of a “different order of magnitude” to other more serious convictions under Operation Yewtree.

But he said Travis “towered” over his diminutive victim, and thought he could get away with the attack because he was a star.

After the judge passed sentence, grey-haired Travis glanced at the floor and said: “Thank you, your honour.”

Marianne, Travis’s wife of more than 40 years, hugged a friend in the public gallery after the judge delivered his sentence.

Following sentencing, Detective Chief Inspector Michael Orchard said: “The victim was forced to relive her ordeal by Griffin [Travis’s real name], who refused to admit his guilt.”