Dave Lee Travis is “tactile with everybody” and “gives a squeeze” when greeting people, a court heard today.
The veteran DJ, 69, told the jury at Southwark Crown Court that he was "tactile" - but denied that he is an opportunist who takes his chance to touch young women.
Asked by his barrister, Stephen Vullo, if he was a tactile person and if this was a problem, Travis said: “Yes very much so. I am tactile with everybody – men, women, certainly women, anyone because it’s just a natural thing for me to greet someone.
“I give a squeeze and have been known to give a guy a hug and a kiss on the cheek if I know he is a great guy.”
Travis also flatly denied claims he would sexually attack anyone at a pantomime because he is not a “moron”.
He told the jury: “It doesn’t bear thinking about to be honest.
“The thought of sexually attacking someone as part of that team is just not something you would want to do. You would have to be a complete moron to do that – something that I am hoping that no-one is going to suggest that I am a moron.”
He said that he enjoyed playing a baddie saying: “I relish it, there is nothing better than going on stage and saying `I hate kids'.”
Travis, who has been a household name since the 1970s, said there was a culture of friendliness in the world of showbusiness where you might touch someone on the shoulders.
Mr Vullo asked if he ever crossed the line.
Travis said: “No I am not going to go up to a strange person and pinch their bottom - it's just not going to happen - or any other part of them.”
Travis, who is charged under his real name David Griffin, denies two counts of indecent assault and one of sexual assault.
He is facing a retrial on two counts - one of indecent assault of a woman between November 1 1990 and January 31 1991, and another of sexual assault on a different woman between June 1 2008 and November 30 2008 - on which a jury was unable to reach verdicts at a trial earlier this year.
Travis, of Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, has also pleaded not guilty to an additional count of indecent assault alleged to have taken place on January 17 1995.
The case continues.
