Dave Lee Travis launches appeal against indecent assault conviction

Appeal: Dave Lee Travis
Lauren Hurley/PA
Hannah Al-Othman8 December 2015
WEST END FINAL

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Former Radio 1 star Dave Lee Travis has launched a legal challenge against his conviction for indecent assault.

Three judges at the Court of Appeal in London are hearing an application by the disgraced DJ, who was found guilty of groping a young researcher behind the scenes at The Mrs Merton Show in 1995.

The former Top Of The Pops presenter, now 70, said he was "mortified" and "really disappointed" after he was convicted last year, and sentenced to three months in prison, suspended for two years, by a judge at Southwark Crown Court.

A jury heard he assaulted his victim - who is now a successful TV personality - 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, of Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, who became a household name in the 1970s, was first arrested in October 2012 under Operation Yewtree, Scotland Yard's investigation into historic sexual abuse in the wake of allegations against the late DJ Jimmy Savile.

Travis is in court today for the appeal before Lady Justice Hallett, Mrs Justice McGowan and Mrs Justice May.

His counsel QC Stephen Vullo told the judges the events that followed Mr Travis's arrest had "devastated his career, ruined his reputation, and damaged his finances beyond repair".

He told the court two trials lasting "many weeks", with two separate juries, had "resulted in a single conviction", saying: "We have evidence now that [the complainant] lied to the jury."

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