Former Radio 1 DJ Tim Westwood pleads not guilty to rape and sexual assault

Former Radio 1 DJ Tim Westwood has pleaded not guilty to four counts of rape, nine counts of indecent assault and two counts of sexual assault.

The 68-year-old arrived at Southwark Crown Court on Monday, wearing a black hooded jacket, a maroon shirt and dark trousers.

Westwood stood with his hands clasped in front of him as he confirmed his name, before sitting down in the glass dock.

He is alleged to have raped women, kissed them and touched their bodies without consent.

The offences are said to have taken place against seven different women between 1983 and 2016.

Three of the alleged indecent assaults are said to have taken place at the BBC studios in the 1990s.

Westwood was granted bail, with the condition not to contact the complainants ahead of a pre-trial review hearing, scheduled for next December.

Last month, Westwood returned to the UK from Nigeria to appear in court.

He has attended five police interviews voluntarily since the investigation into the alleged offences began.

Westwood has previously denied all allegations of sexual misconduct made against him.

The charges

Charges against Westwood include an allegation of rape against a woman at a hotel in London in 1996, one count of rape from the early 2000s at an address in London, and two counts of rape at an address in London in the 2010s.

He is further accused of four indecent assaults in London in the 1980s, three indecent assaults at the BBC in the 1990s, and two indecent assaults in the early 2000s.

The former DJ is also alleged to have sexually assaulted a woman at a nightclub in Stroud, Gloucestershire, in 2010.

Westwood began his broadcasting career in local radio before joining Capital Radio in the late 1980s.

He moved to the BBC in 1994, working on Radio 1 and Radio 1Xtra for almost 20 years.

After leaving the BBC in 2013, he then joined Capital Xtra, hosting a regular Saturday show where he was referred to as "The Big Dawg", before he left the company in 2022.

The trial is set to start on 25 January 2027.

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