VETERAN DJ Dave Lee Travis has flatly denied claims he would sexually attack anyone at a pantomime because he is not a "moron".

Speaking for the first time from the witness box in his sex offences trial at London's Southwark Crown Court, Travis said: "It doesn't bear thinking about to be honest."

He told the jury: "The thought of sexually attacking someone as part of that team is just not something you would want to do. You would have to be a complete moron to do that - something that I am hoping that no-one is going to suggest is that I am a moron."

He said that he enjoyed playing a baddie, saying: "I relish it, there is nothing better than going on stage and saying 'I hate kids'."

Travis said that pinching someone's bottom was a line he had not crossed.

The former Radio 1 star told the jury he was "tactile" but denied being an opportunist who took his chance to touch young women.

Travis, who has been a household name since the 1970s, said there was a culture of friendliness in the world of showbusiness.

Asked by his barrister Stephen Vullo if he ever crossed the line, he said: "No I am not going to go up to a strange person and pinch their bottom - it's just not going to happen - or any other part of them."

Mr Vullo also asked if he was tactile and if this was a problem. Travis said: "Yes very much so. I am tactile with everybody - men, women, certainly women, anyone - because it's just a natural thing for me."

Mr Vullo asked how he would react if he accidentally touched someone inappropriately, perhaps on the breasts. Travis said he would apologise, adding: "I would not sneakily want to touch someone and walk away - it is just not done."

Travis, 69, who is charged under his real name David Griffin, denies two counts of indecent assault and one of sexual assault.

He is facing a retrial on two counts - one of indecent assault of a woman between November 1, 1990 and January 31, 1991, and another of sexual assault on a different woman between June 1 and November 30, 2008 - on which a jury was unable to reach verdicts at a trial earlier this year.

Travis, of Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, has also pleaded not guilty to an ­additional count of indecent assault alleged to have taken place on January 17, 1995.

The trial continues.