Source : Perth Now news
Alan Jones’s longtime butler has testified seeing the talkback titan greet a prominent athlete with a hug and “a slap on the bottom” when he visited.
David Allan served as butler and house manager for nearly 19 years at Jones’s luxury apartment in Circular Quay.
The period coincided with the timing of alleged indecent assaults and sexual touching against five men by the former 2GB host.
One of the complainants is a prominent athlete who alleged Jones pressed his genitals against him and twice kissed him on the corner of the mouth without consent.
Mr Allan, 79, told a Sydney court he saw the well-known sportsman visit the longtime shock jock’s Sydney home eight or nine times.
When asked how Jones would greet the younger man, the butler described the greeting as: “A hug, a slap on the bottom … ‘hello champion’ and then sit down and chat away.”
When crown prosecutor Georgina Wright SC asked him to clarify what he meant by “a slap on the bottom”, Mr Allan said it was what sports people do all the time.
“(They) score a try. They all get around and snuggle up,” he told the court, prompting a smile from Jones.
Jones, now 85, has pleaded not guilty to 21 charges of indecent assault and sexual touching.
None allege Jones touched a complainant on the bottom in his apartment.
Mr Allan told the court he hadn’t seen any inappropriate behaviour from Jones towards three of the complainants who had visited the apartment.
Jones used to say he “liked champions”, Mr Allan said, reeling off notable visitors to the apartment including former Test cricketer Brett Lee and World Cup-winning Wallabies captain Nick Farr-Jones.
“There was a constant stream of people from every walk of life,” he said.
“If I wasn’t introduced to them, I didn’t know what they did.”
The veteran broadcaster looked after former sportspeople and others in a generous way by cooking for them or “helping them out”, Mr Allan said.
The prominent athlete allegedly indecently assaulted by Jones said the former radio host sent him weekly flowers.
The butler on Thursday confirmed he had been responsible for buying the flowers from the market, but was not given a reason for doing so by Jones.
“He was a very generous man,” Mr Allan told the court.
“He did extraordinary things for so many people.”
Five men allege the former top-rating breakfast radio host kissed, groped or subjected them to unlawful sexual misconduct between 2003 and 2020 across Sydney and the NSW Southern Highlands.
Jones denies all of the allegations against him, which he argues have been concocted.
He spent 35 years as one of the country’s most influential broadcasters who interviewed leaders and set agendas before retiring in 2020.
Before becoming a radio host, he was a teacher, the coach of the national men’s rugby union team and a failed political hopeful.
The trial, which began in early August, is expected to run for another two months.
1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)
National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service 1800 211 028
