Dave Lee Travis 'Assaulted Woman During Smurfs Top of the Pops Appearance'

Former BBC Radio 1 DJ Dave Lee Travis assaulted a 19-year-old girl during a broadcast of Top of the Pops while introducing a Smurfs song, a court has heard.

Travis is also alleged to have fondled the breast of a BBC trainee as she introduced Woman's Hour on Radio 4 live on air.

Travis, 68, is accused of 13 counts of indecent assault and one count of sexual assault relating to 11 women, including a 15-year-old girl, between January 1976 and November 2008.

The former BBC star, who is charged under his real name David Patrick Griffin, denies all the charges against him.

Opening the prosecution at Southwark Crown Court, Miranda Moore QC told the jury that Travis was an "opportunistic" predator who targeted "young vulnerable" woman at the height of his fame.

The court heard how Travis assaulted his victims during his appearances at the BBC, during production of pantomimes and even the opening of a hospital radio. Moore told the jury how the prosecution had received complaints against Travis from women "all over the country".

"The offences vary in gravity," Moore added.

"All are sexual in nature involving unwanted contact by this defendant on much younger women, both over clothing and under clothing."

The court heard how during a broadcast of TOTP, Travis put his hand up the skirt of one of his alleged victims during filming in June 1978. The moment the alleged incident took place was cut from broadcast, but the jury was shown a second clip of Travis with his arm around his alleged victim.

A female camera operator who worked on TOTP around the same time as the alleged assault also claims she was groped by Travis during a separate recording, the court has heard.

The radio presenter is also accused of assaulting another woman live on air while working at the BBC. It is claimed he grabbed the breast of a BBC trainee while she was preparing the introduction of the Woman's Hour. During the alleged incident, Travis warned the woman not to make a noise as the red light was on indicating she was live on air.

Travis described the allegation he assaulted the woman in the radio studio as "insane".

One of the alleged victims, who was 15 at the time, claims she was assaulted in a trailer during a concert by group Showaddywaddy in 1978. She told how she feared she would be raped by Travis after she was "pinned" to her seat during the attack.

"He pushed her top and bra up and exposed her breasts and started to kiss her," said the QC.

Moore said: "She was pinned into her seat by him sitting next to her. She said 'stop' but he ran his hand up her skirt. She had no route to escape and she began to scream and was crying and shouting — she was terrified.

"Eventually he stopped and told her to go and she dressed herself as best she could and made her way as quickly as she could out of the trailer."

Travis, from Buckinghamshire, was arrested as part of Operation Yewtree, the police investigation into sexual abuse allegations brought on in the wake of the Jimmy Savile sex scandal.

He denies all the charges against him.

The trial continues.