Former Radio 1 DJ Dave Lee Travis has avoided prison for indecently assaulting a woman at BBC Manchester studios – with the judge citing jailed paedophile Stuart Hall’s sentence as the reason.
The 69-year-old groped a member of the Mrs Merton Show production crew ‘for 10-15 seconds’ at a BBC television studio in Manchester in 1995 and has been handed a three-month suspended sentence.
The ex-Top of the Pops presenter appeared at Southwark Crown Court this morning to receive the sentence, which has been suspended for two years.
Judge Anthony Leonard, presiding over the trial, described Travis’s actions as ‘an intentional and unpleasant sexual assault’.
“You took advantage of a young woman in a vulnerable position whose job it was to look after you that day,” he said.
Judge Leonard explained the sentence to the court identifying the crimes of former BBC sex fiend Hall’s offences as a reason for his decision to keep the ex-radio DJ out of prison.
Hall was initially jailed for 15 months before his sentence was increased to 60 months after his spell in prison was ruled as ‘too lenient’.
He said: “The commission of any indecent assault is serious and reprehensible.
“But the scale and nature of the offences of which Stuart Hall and other defendants who have been successfully prosecuted are of a different order of magnitude to the single offence of which you have been convicted.”
Travis thanked the judge upon receiving his sentence.
On Tuesday, the former entertainment star was found not guilty on one charge of indecent assault dating back to 1990, while the jury could not reach a verdict regarding a further sexual assault charge.
He had also been previously cleared of 12 counts of indecent assault at his original trial in February this year.
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