AN ex-pirate radio DJ from Altrincham accused of multiple sex offences has denied he was Jimmy Savile's chauffeur, or that the pair ever went on holiday together.

Ray Teret, who was known as "Ugly Ray" in his Radio Caroline days, also said he was not in regular contact with Savile from the mid-60s to the end of the 70s and never appeared on Top Of The Pops alongside him.

Teret, 73, is on trial accused of a string of historic sex allegations involving 17 women across four decades dating back to 1962.

One of the complainants says she was aged 15 in the 1960s when Teret took her back to a flat where he and Savile raped her.

A jury at Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court has heard that the disgraced late BBC broadcaster taught Teret how to become a DJ and take to the decks at Jimmy Savile's Disc Club in Manchester.

Teret agreed Savile taught him "the nuts and bolts of the job" but said he worked for him for only eight months.

He said: "He disappeared from Manchester and went back to Leeds. On an odd occasion when he came over I got a message saying Savile is going to be at the fire station or at the town hall or wherever and would you meet him, and I went."

Prosecutor Tim Evans asked him: "Did you go on holiday together in the 1970s?"

Teret replied: "No, never."

Mr Evans reminded him that press coverage of this court case included a photograph of him sitting next to Savile in deckchairs, which referred to the defendant's “skinny legs and tight blue denim shorts.”

Teret said: "I don't have skinny legs and we were not sitting on deckchairs, we were sitting on ordinary chairs."

He said he thought the photograph was taken in Blackpool in 1978 and the occasion was "a handicapped children's outing which Mr Savile did."

Teret said: "It wasn't a holiday."

Mr Evans asked: "You appeared on Top Of The Pops with him on occasions?"

The defendant replied: "Never."

The barrister continued: "Were you not introduced on air by Savile as 'my friend Ray Teret'."

Teret said: "I was not employed by the BBC. They would not invite anyone coming from a pirate radio station.

"Never ever in the world. Even in a sweet shop, if I went in with him, he would never say 'my friend'."

Mr Evans said: "How did he refer to you?"

Teret said: "He didn't introduce me to anyone. He would say this is my driver, my mechanic, my cleaner. He would make up something, whatever dream came into his head.

"'My accountant', he would call me most times."

Mr Evans said: "You will be aware of the publicity relating to this case and the description of you as Jimmy Savile's driver or chauffeur. Is that a role you ever had?"

Teret said: "What the press say is I was his chauffeur, which I never was.

"The time I knew him I didn't have a driving licence. I was banned from touching any of his vehicles because of it."

The defendant said he was not in regular contact with Savile from the mid-1960s to the end of the 1970s and Savile never phoned him personally in that period.

Mr Evans said: "Mr Teret, I am going to suggest that is not true. That is you trying to distance yourself from some of the detail in evidence given by the complainants."

Teret replied: "That's your choice."

The barrister added: "Is it really the case that Savile gave you instructions not to fraternise with young girls at his disco?"

Teret said: "Not to fraternise with any of the females at his disco."

Mr Evans said: "This is a man who is now being investigated in relation to literally thousands of cases of sexual abuse. Is it really the case that you were instructed not to fraternise with young girls?"

The defendant replied: "That is why I said it."

The pair did travel together to the Jersey Flower Festival in the early 1970s, which Teret wrote about in a book manuscript entitled The DJ's Bible, which police recovered after his arrest.

Teret told the court the pair travelled in a Mercedes motorhome.

He said: "We got the ship at Southampton. I had to load the vehicle on because he would not do it because he was 'the star'.

"I had to drive from the docks because he was the star. He took over when he drove into the hotel car park."

Teret said the plan was for the pair to sleep in the vehicle.

"A great example of his frugality," Teret wrote in his book.

But the defendant told the court that the hotel offered Savile a free room and the DJ then handed him a sleeping bag to stay in the motorhome.

Months later it was announced that Savile was to receive an OBE for his charity work, the court heard.

Teret wrote in The DJ's Bible about a note that Savile sent to him on official Buckingham Palace notepaper informing him of his honour.

The passage read: "'Vot About Ze £40?'.

"He'd sent me half the bill for the cafe food for the Jersey trip and he hadn't even bought the paper he'd written it on. Frugal or what?"

Teret - who has a previous conviction for unlawful sexual intercourse with a girl aged under 16 - denies 18 rapes, two other serious sexual assaults, one attempted rape, 11 indecent assaults and two counts of indecency with a child.

Two other men are on trial with Teret, from Woodlands Road, Altrincham.

Alan Ledger, 62, also of Woodlands Road, Altrincham, denies a serious sexual assault, one indecent assault and one count of indecency with a child.

A third defendant, William Harper, 65, of Stretford, denies one count of attempted rape.