A story has reemerged of a female stagehand who told a court how she was groped by disgraced DJ Dave Lee Travis, and was able to escape after the attack was interrupted by the Chuckle Brothers.
Travis had been playing the part of villainous Abanazar in a pantomime production of Aladdin back in the early 1990s at the time, which the stagehand had been working on.
Travis allegedly assaulted the then 21-year-old woman in a dressing room, sliding his hand down the front of her jogging bottoms and preventing her from exiting the room.
However, the woman was able to get away from Travis when his name was called from the corridor by Paul and Barry Elliot, best known as the Chuckle Brothers.
Speaking about the alleged incident, the woman said:
I was about to go and he was suddenly behind me. He’s a big chap and he engulfed me and he had his hand on the door above me.
He put his other hand down the front of my jogging bottoms. He was touching me from top to bottom.
When asked where Travis’s hand went, she added:
I believe it was over my genitalia. I don’t think it went inside my pants.
According to The Telegraph, the woman was one of three alleged victims to testify against Travis at the Southwark Crown Court last year.
Here she spoke about how getting out of the door became her ‘complete focus’:
It felt like a long time but I think it was only a matter of moments before I managed to get the door open.
He was pushing it over the top of my head. He was a lot stronger than I am.
The woman managed to open the door slightly, and it was at this point she heard a voice belonging to one of the Chuckle Brothers as they walked towards the dressing room.
She said:
I heard someone say ‘alright Dave’, at which point he released me.
After escaping, the woman claims she rushed away and informed a supervisor about the assault, saying:
I was really obviously shaken up. Confused and scared and just in a bit of a state really.
The woman and her colleague agreed she did not have to enter Travis’s dressing room for the remainder of the pantomime’s run. They also talked about whether to take the matter further.
She said:
We decided that because it was my first job in theatre it wouldn’t be me who was going to be believed.
I think I felt that even if someone believed me, which I didn’t, it still wouldn’t be me that kept my job.
The court heard how the theatre went on to decide how female employees should not be left on their own with Travis during the patomime’s run.
Travis was found guilty by a majority verdict of one count of indecent assault and on given a three-month prison sentence suspended for two years.
Jules studied English Literature with Creative Writing at Lancaster University before earning her masters in International Relations at Leiden University in The Netherlands (Hoi!). She then trained as a journalist through News Associates in Manchester. Jules has previously worked as a mental health blogger, copywriter and freelancer for various publications.