‘I was grossed out by DJ Neil Fox’s behaviour’

A former colleague of radio DJ Neil Fox has described how his “sleazy” behaviour made her want to “puke in his face”.

The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told Fox’s indecency trial that the DJ acted “strangely” towards certain women he worked with.

Giving evidence at Westminster Magistrates’ Court, witnesses described alleged incidents of Fox touching other women and making “laddish banter” at their expense.

One former colleague of the ex-Capital FM chart show host said she had been told about Fox, 54, refusing to comply with instructions unless the alleged victim made her breasts “speak to him”. She said: “It just seemed so strange.”

On another occasion, Fox allegedly told a woman he had a dream about her and that he had woken up aroused, the court heard.

She said: “One time he had bent her over the radio desk and simulated sex from behind with her.

“I heard him say things on occasions that I didn’t think were that appropriate. It was just telling girls that they looked good but in quite a pervy way.

“He said once to a lady I worked with that he didn’t know very well, ‘Ooh, look at you, got your legs out today, looking good’.”

The witness said she had sent a text message to friends after allegedly witnessing him smell a woman’s hair. The court heard that the witness told her friends she “nearly puked in his face” when she saw the incident, prompting Fox, in the dock, to raise his eyebrows.

She added: “I was pretty grossed out by what I had seen. I thought it was disgusting that he would pick up someone’s hair and smell it.”

Another witness described how there was a culture of “boy banter” at Capital, and that a complaint against Fox was allegedly “brushed under the carpet” to protect his name.

Asked by defence counsel Jonathan Caplan QC to elaborate on how his client had been a “challenging” colleague to work with, the witness said: “I felt she [another employee] was to a degree bullied and lacking in confidence. I know she found Neil hard to control. I didn’t know Neil very well and hadn’t worked with him for very long, but I felt that he was a bit of a bully.”

Another witness said Fox had made “inappropriate sexual comments and brushed up against” his friend, an alleged victim, in a sexual manner.

The court previously heard that Fox allegedly “snog-raped” a 15-year-old girl.

Fox, 54, denies eight counts of indecent assault and two counts of sexual assault between 1998 and 2014.