Taylor Swift: Former DJ 'latched on' to my butt

Music superstar Taylor Swift told a US court on Thursday of her shock as she realised she was being groped during a photo opportunity in Colorado, as she faced the former radio DJ she accuses of assaulting her.

Swift, 27, said there was no doubt the radio personality she was being photographed with ahead of a Denver concert in 2013 reached under her skirt and fondled her buttocks.

"It was a definite grab... a very long grab," Swift testified in a Denver federal court.

She declined to speculate how long the incident lasted.

"He stayed latched on to my bare ass cheek as I lurched away from him. (His hand) didn't let go," she told the jury.

Swift was called as a witness by the lawyer representing Mr David Mueller, the former Denver radio host on radio station KYGO accused of groping her during the photo session.

"It was a shocking thing. I had never dealt with something like this before," Swift said.

Mueller, 55, is suing Swift, alleging she and her team slandered him by telling his employer about the incident, resulting in his firing.

She is counter-suing, alleging she was sexually assaulted.

"Someone could have concluded it appeared she was trying to get away from me," Mueller testified on Wednesday, when shown a picture taken during the alleged assault.

The photo of Swift, Mueller and his girlfriend showshis hand behind Swift's rear end.

He claims his knuckles may have touched her ribs, well above where his arm is shown. But he admitted he did not know for sure where his hand was because he was concentrating on the photographer.

Swift, who was 23 at the time, did not file a police report. Her mother Andrea Swift testified on Wednesday that the singer's management wanted to keep the matter out of the public eye.

Swift was combative as she was questioned for an hour, occasionally rebuking Mueller's lawyer for his line of inquiry.

"I am not going to allow you or your client to say I am to blame," she told him.

She also rejected Mueller's contention that he may have touched her somewhere less inappropriate.

"He did not touch my hand. He did not touch my arm. He did not touch my rib. He touched my bare a**," Swift said.

She rejected the suggestion that she had continued greeting guests for as long as 30 minutes after the alleged assault, as if nothing had happened.

"This is a fact. This is what happened to me. I knew when it happened," she said.

Swift's assistants testified in depositions that as soon as the photo session ended, she told everyone in the room about the incident.

They said she was uncomfortable and visibly upset.

Mr Robert Call, Mueller's boss at KYGO and the man who fired him, later told the court the photo indicated to him that Mueller's hand was in an inappropriate place, and this was a large reason for his dismissal.

"I have seen hundreds of meet-and-greet photos," Mr Call said, adding he had never seen any with hands positioned like Mueller's.

He also testified that Mueller had changed his account, first denying the incident occurred at all and then conceding that it might have taken place, but that any contact would have been "accidental or incidental".

Station programme manager Herschel Coomer testified Mueller was adamant he had not done anything improper.

"We felt he violated the morality clause in his contract," said Mr Coomer, who was Mueller's supervisor. - AFP