Freddie Starr 'groped girl' in Savile dressing room

Freddie Starr denies the claims and says he has lost money through shows being cancelled

A woman has told London's High Court that she was groped as a 15-year-old by comedian Freddie Starr in Jimmy Savile's dressing room.

Karin Ward, 56, alleges that the assault took place in 1974 behind the scenes of Savile's Clunk Click TV show.

She had been "distressed" because Mr Starr had an "unpleasant" smell like her abusive stepfather, she said.

Mr Starr, 72, of Studley, Warwickshire, denies the claims and is seeking damages for alleged slander and libel.

The entertainer says he has lost £300,000 from shows being cancelled over the allegations.

He is suing over interviews given to the BBC and ITV in October 2012, statements on a website and those made in an eBook about Ms Ward's life.

'What men wanted'

Mother-of-seven Ms Ward - a pupil at Duncroft Approved School, in Staines, Surrey, in March 1974 - told the court she had been sexually abused by Savile more than once in return for going to BBC Television Centre in London and being in the Clunk Click audience.

"It was just what men wanted and I very much wanted to go on the telly," she said.

She said she had been given lithium at the school, which had affected her memory, but that she "very vividly" remembered that Mr Starr smelled of alcohol and cologne.

Challenged by Mr Starr's counsel, Dean Dunham, that the comic had not touched her, Ms Ward said: "Oh he did - but he behaved in the same way that every red-blooded male behaved in 1974 when it was perfectly acceptable. That wasn't what I objected to.

"I didn't like the way he smelt, reminiscent of my stepfather, and I would have preferred him to stay away from me but I wasn't really bothered.

"It wasn't a bottom pinch or a slap. It was known back then as a 'goose', when a man would put his hand under a girl's buttocks and give it a squeeze and usually say 'goose' and, at the same time, reach for her breasts and and say 'honk, honk'.

"That was supposed to be funny.

"He got as far as the 'goose' and I recoiled because, while I expected that kind of behaviour from all men and was used to it, I was distressed because the smell reminded me of my stepfather."

No charges brought

Ms Ward said she had not complained "because it was acceptable at the time".

Mr Starr previously told the judge, who is hearing the case without a jury, that he did not at first remember appearing on the Clunk Click show, until footage showed him in the studio with Ms Ward in the audience behind him.

He said the police undertook a full investigation into the allegation made by Ms Ward and a further 13 additional complainants who also put forward allegations.

The Crown Prosecution Service decided that no charges would be brought.

The trial is expected to last two weeks.