Dave Lee Travis sentence 'not unduly lenient' according to attorney general

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Disgraced DJ Dave Lee Travis's three-month suspended sentence for indecent assault was "neither wrong in principle nor unduly lenient", the Attorney General has found.

Jeremy Wright QC decided that the 69-year-old's sentence for groping a TV researcher on the Mrs Merton Show in 1995 would not be referred to the Court of Appeal.

Travis, whose real name is David Griffin, was found guilty at London's Southwark Crown Court and sentenced by Judge Anthony Leonard last month.

A spokesman for the Attorney General's Office said: "The Attorney General, Jeremy Wright QC MP, has decided not to refer the suspended prison sentence given to David Griffin to the Court of Appeal as he does not believe they would find it to be unduly lenient and increase it.

The suspended sentence was considered for referral to the Court of Appeal after four members of the public contacted the Attorney General's Office to complain.

Travis's trial heard that the former Top Of The Pops presenter got a "weird sexual thrill" when he indecently assaulted the victim, who is now a successful TV personality, in 1995.

He cornered her 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, who became a household name in the 1970s, was found not guilty on a second indecent assault charge and the jury was discharged after it was unable to agree a verdict on a count of sexual assault.

He faced a retrial after jurors failed to reach verdicts on those two charges earlier this year. He was cleared of 12 counts of indecent assault at his original trial in February.

Travis, of Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, 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.

Press Association