I was groped by three famous women, Travis tells jury

The former BBC presenter, known as DLT, said the women “stuck their hands down between my legs and squeezed me” but added that he saw it as a joke.

Earlier he told jurors it was “absolutely 100 per cent wrong” that he thought it acceptable to grab women’s breasts and bottoms during the 1970s and 1980s.

Travis, now 68, denies 13 indecent assaults and one sexual assault in incidents dating back to 1976 and the height of his fame.

Taking to the witness box for a third day at London’s Southwark Crown Court, he told jurors: “If patting somebody’s bottom was a crime in the 1970s then half the country would be in jail by then, I suppose.”

Asked by prosecutor Miranda Moore QC about comments he made to police and the Press that “flirtatious” behaviour was the norm then, Travis said that although he would have admitted it if he had touched women inappropriately, he had never done so.

He said his comments that things were different back then had been taken out of context, adding: “These are things that have happened in the 1970s and 1980s and on that basis I said then, and I’m still saying it, it was just flirtatious behaviour at the time, not that it was just flirtatious at the time and I partook of it, because I still don’t like the idea of doing that.”

Travis said the allegations had made him “as mad as hell”.

Ms Moore asked: “Were you mad as hell because you were doing this sort of thing for years and years thinking that it was perfectly all right, when it fact it wasn’t?”

“No,” Travis replied.

Ms Moore asked whether Travis thought it “entirely acceptable” to touch women in this way.

“No, that is absolutely 100 per cent wrong,” he said.

Asked about the attention he received from female fans, Travis admitted that he had on occasion fallen to “temptation”.

Asked about the allegations, he said: “Somebody has got it in for me and they have decided they are going to have a go. It’s easy.”

Travis, who is appearing under his real name David Griffin, from Buckinghamshire, said he had “no idea” why 16 women have come forward but suggested it could be to get “cash for a story” or out of spite because he would not sign autographs for them.

The trial continues.