Dave Lee Travis assault caused woman '40 years of hell'

DJ Dave Lee Travis is on trial for 14 sexual offences

A woman who was allegedly assaulted by Dave Lee Travis says the incident caused her "40 years of hell".

The veteran BBC DJ was alone with the then 19-year-old at the opening of a hospital radio station in 1973 when he put his hand up her skirt and groped her, Southwark Crown Court heard.

Mr Travis, 68, denies 13 indecent assaults and one sexual assault.

The woman broke down while giving evidence, saying the assault left her scared to go out alone.

She said Mr Travis - on trial under his real name David Patrick Griffin - had a "haunting look" on his face when he touched her.

After the incident she felt "ashamed" and "frightened" and avoided watching the star on television, she told the court.

"He screwed a lot of my life up," she said of the former Top of the Pops presenter.

The woman - who was raised a strict Catholic - said her late husband never knew that the alleged assault had affected the couple's love life.

"When he put his arms around me, I'd freeze," she said.

'Engulfed me'

Earlier, the trial heard from a former theatre stage hand who said Mr Travis had only stopped assaulting her when one of the Chuckle Brothers spoke outside a dressing room door.

The woman said Mr Travis attacked her in his dressing room, holding the door shut while he was appearing in a Christmas pantomime performance of Aladdin.

The show also starred Barry and Paul Elliot, better known as the Chuckle Brothers.

The woman, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, told the court: "I was about to go and he was suddenly behind me.

"He's a big chap and he engulfed me and he had his hand on the door above me.

"He put his other hand down the front of my jogging bottoms."

She said she struggled to escape and managed to open the door slightly despite his superior strength.

"I heard someone say 'All right, Dave', at which point he released me," she said.

The woman said the voice belonged to one of the Chuckle Brothers, who were walking along the corridor towards the dressing room.

The woman said the attack ended when one of the Chuckle Brothers spoke

She said she told a supervisor about the incident, which had left her "confused and scared", and it was agreed that she would not have to enter Mr Travis's dressing room again.

But she said she did not report the assault because she feared she would lose her job.

"We decided that because it was my first job in theatre it wouldn't be me who was going to be believed," she said.

"I think I felt that even if someone believed me... it still wouldn't be me that kept my job."

The incident allegedly happened in the early 1990s when the victim was 21.

'Deaf ears'

The court also heard Mr Travis squeezed a BBC camerawoman's bottom during a recording of Top of the Pops in the early 1980s.

The witness, whose claims are not part of the charges Mr Travis faces, said it was "sustained touching".

She said Mr Travis later gave her a "tight" and "unnatural" hug and said the words "beautiful woman".

After this alleged incident, the witness said she made sure she never again worked on Top of the Pops when Mr Travis was on the show.

"I just got away from him as fast as I could," she said.