Dave Lee Travis arrest by Savile police is 'not to do with kids'
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The DJ Dave Lee Travis has denied groping two women and stressed that allegations against him have “nothing to do with kids”.
The 67-year-old said men of his generation were “tactile”, which could lead to misunderstandings about appropriate physical contact.
Mr Travis spoke to reporters outside his home in Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire, and said he did not want his name associated with “evil” child abuse.
He was arrested on Thursday by detectives investigating the Jimmy Savile scandal, but the allegations against Mr Travis are not linked to those against the disgraced TV presenter.
Mr Travis said: “This is nothing to do with kids, all right? Because that to me is the most important thing in the world and I do not wish to have my name sullied around something that is bloody evil, to be honest.
“The second thing I want is to say, yes, there’s a complete denial there, but there’s nothing else I can tell you because otherwise I might be stepping on the police’s feet and I don’t want to do that because it might affect their investigations.”
Mr Travis had already vigorously denied allegations, made last month, that he groped two women while in BBC studios. One alleged he had put his hand up her skirt, while the other said he had “jiggled” her breasts.
The former Radio 1 DJ told reporters: “There’s one very important point I want to get across here – when I read the papers this morning I could not believe it.
“It was, like, ‘DLT caught in Savile probe’. I’m going to make one thing clear to you – the Savile probe is nothing to do with things I’ve been talking to the police about.
“I was accused of ‘squeezing the boobs’ of a couple of women. One, you know is Vivien Creegor and the other was somebody from 1967 or something, which is incredible.”
“I am and always have been completely abhorred by anything to do with children and anything to do with child molestation”, he added.
“I think that sometimes, you know, us guys who are a bit older, who are, shall we say, tactile, which is not a terrible thing to be – in the old days you put your arm around somebody and gave them a little kiss or a cuddle,” he continued.
“Yeah, that’s fine. But nowadays, you know, you’d have to stop and think, ‘Is this an assault?’
“Now, I’m not saying that I haven’t put my arms round people or anything like that, and I’m not saying that any of this is right or wrong at the moment, but I’m just trying to get the facts out.”