EX-BBC DJ re-arrested on sex charges

AFP

British radio presenter Dave Lee Travis protested his innocence following his arrest for sexual offences, after his employers said he was being taken off the air with immediate effect.

London - British former radio DJ Dave Lee Travis has been re-arrested on suspicion of sexual offences as part of an investigation sparked by claims against his late BBC colleague Jimmy Savile, police said Wednesday.

Travis, 67, was first arrested in the case in November. On returning to answer bail on Monday, he was re-arrested over further allegations.

“On his return on March 11 the man in his 60s was further arrested on suspicion of sexual offences in connection with further allegations made to Operation Yewtree,” a police spokesman said.

Operation Yewtree is the name of the Scotland Yard investigation sparked by revelations that Savile, who died in 2011 aged 84, was a serial child sex offender.

Travis said later Wednesday that his “conscience is clear” and denied any wrongdoing.

“The last four months have been extraordinary,” he told media outside his house in Bedfordshire, southern England.

“Allegations which I strongly deny have been put to me by the police and to which I have given full and complete answers. I have fully cooperated and my conscience is clear.”

In November the DJ made a similar denial and stressed that the allegations against him did not involve children.

Travis, nicknamed the “Hairy Cornflake”, worked alongside Savile at BBC Radio 1 for 25 years before moving to the broadcaster's World Service network.

In 2011, Myanmar pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi said Travis's World Service music request show had helped her to get through more than two decades under house arrest.

Travis met Suu Kyi when she visited BBC studios during a visit to Britain in June last year. - AFP