Dave Lee Travis walks free despite assault conviction

Disgraced DJ Dave Lee Travis said he was "mortified" and "really disappointed" over his indecent assault conviction as he again criticised prosecutors for portraying him as a sexual predator.

The former BBC Radio 1 star walked free from court 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 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 the pack of reporters and camera crews, Travis said: “Two years ago, I was accused out of the blue, of being a sexual predator.”

“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.

He went on: “Those closest to me, including my wife Marianne, have been by my side all the time. Travis’s trial heard that the former Top Of The Pops presenter got a “weird sexual thrill’ when he indecently assaulted the woman, 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 for 10 to 15 seconds

Travis, who became a household name in the 1970s, 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 in February.