source : the age
Warning: Graphic content
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of day eight of Alan Jones’ lengthy criminal trial on charges of indecent assault and sexual touching. My colleagues Clare Sibthorpe and Harriet Alexander will be bringing you the latest from the courtroom today.
The NSW Local Court in Sydney’s historic Downing Centre court building will hear today from complainant “C”, the second of six men who have accused the former 2GB host of unwanted touching and kissing over a 20-year period.
Jones denies the claims and is entitled to the presumption of innocence.
In the first week of the trial, the court heard allegations that Jones indecently assaulted “J”, a young athlete, starting with unwanted kissing and progressing to touching. On the Crown’s case, “J” was aged between 17 and 21 at the time of the nine alleged indecent assaults.
The defence case is that the alleged incidents didn’t happen.
This week, the older brother of “J” and the complainant’s ex-girlfriend gave evidence about what they said he told them about the alleged assaults, and his mother and his former coach gave evidence yesterday.
His mother testified that “J” initially told her that Jones had not touched him, before telling her the following year that he had lied. She said that she was in shock when “J” made the disclosure, and she told her son she should have protected him.
The Crown alleges that Jones indecently assaulted or sexually touched six men without their consent between 2003 and 2020, and is seeking to prove 22 charges against him.
Jones’ barrister, Gabrielle Bashir, SC, said during her opening address to the court that the credibility and reliability of the complainants’ evidence would be tested.
Support is available from the National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732) or the Men’s Referral Service on 1300 766 491.
“C” is being sent home amid legal argument, and will be back to continue his evidence-in-chief at 10am on Monday.
Prosecutor Georgina Wright, SC, asked “C” if Jones kissed or touched him after he started working at his new job. He said he did not.
The complainant said he only saw Jones in passing after he changed jobs.
Asked what sort of interactions he had, “C” said: “Minimal. It sort of all stopped.”
The court has heard of a second overnight trip to Jones’ Fitzroy Falls farm where complainant “C” says he and Jones socialised with a group of high-profile athletes.
“We had dinner out the back, which is always interesting, because Alan would introduce people at the table and I felt like a bit of an imposter,” he said.
“He always says something nice about [the person] as he goes around. What he said about me was not as good as those guys.”
The group socialised throughout the night, he said, with several of the athletes playing musical instruments, before Jones took “C” to a spare room with bunk beds.
“Alan sort of tucked me in; he didn’t do anything other than that,” he said, adding Jones told him he loved him.
In the morning, the group shared breakfast together and then “C” drove back to Sydney, he said.
Complainant “C” told the court that as he walked away from the lower north shore restaurant, another person who was at the lunch said to him: “You copped a feel under the table? Did you like it?”
“C” said this comment made him feel “deeply, deeply embarrassed”.
“That was, I believe, the first time someone had seen it happen,” he said.
Asked how he responded, he said that he “probably tried to laugh it off … I don’t recall what I said”.
Complainant “C” has told the court Jones indecently assaulted him at a restaurant on the lower north shore.
Jones asked for the complainant to sit next to him at the event, “C” told the court, then placed his left hand on the complainant’s penis under the table, while continuing to converse and hold court with others at the table. The complainant said that Jones kept his hand there the whole lunch, moving it only to eat his lunch.
“It was the first time he’d done it in front of other people,” complainant “C” said.
“I was worried others could see. I was already self-conscious about sitting next to him. I didn’t want them thinking I was Alan’s toy. I know that sounds like a simplistic way of putting it, but they all made jokes about Alan being interested in young men.”
He told the court he recalled the expression on the faces of two lunch guests sitting opposite him. “I could see them looking at me, almost sniggering.”
Complainant “C” said Jones kissed him in a workplace lift “a lot”.
“It was fairly opportunistic,” he said. “If there was no-one around, he would do it, it would happen”.
He said the unwanted kissing happened even more often at Jones’ harbourside apartment than inside the workplace lift.
Jones is charged with eight counts of indecent assault involving “C”, including five counts relating to alleged kisses. Three of those alleged kisses are said to have occurred in the lift of Jones’ apartment while two are said to have occurred in the workplace lift.
Jones denies the allegations and is defending all of the charges.
The court has heard impassioned remarks by complainant “C”. Responding to a question from the Crown about why he did not push Jones off when he kissed him in a workplace lift, he said Alan’s power was extraordinary.
“The reason I couldn’t speak up was out of fear of losing my job … If I said something or confided in someone … all of a sudden, I would just no longer be there. That’s how you felt. I was never going to fight back.
“Do I regret not fighting back? Every day. Every day I feel regret I didn’t fight back or say ‘no’ louder, but you couldn’t. It’s really easy to say ‘why didn’t you say no, why didn’t you push him away, why didn’t you tell him to stop’.”
“Alan was protected, he was the Golden Goose … There was no way in the world I could have said anything to anyone.”
Court has resumed following lunch adjournment. Complainant “C” has told the court about the first time Jones allegedly kissed him without his consent in a workplace lift.
By this point, Jones had kissed him “many times” at the former broadcaster’s home, he said. He told the court Jones had also touched him on the penis outside his clothes several times inside a car. This was the first time an alleged kiss happened in a workplace.
Once the lift doors shut, the man said, Jones came towards him and kissed him. He told prosecutor Georgina Wright, SC, that he did not respond physically or verbally.
“By that point, I was very desensitised, but I never ever kissed him back.”
Asked how he felt about whether he could stop Jones from kissing him on that occasion, he said he could not stop him.
“C” said the lift kisses “became a regular thing if we were on our own”. He was always holding Jones’ briefcase and jacket, he told the court.
The court is now taking a break for lunch. The trial resumes at 2pm.
The complainant told the court a power dynamic prevented him from telling Jones to stop kissing and touching him without his consent.
“I felt trapped,” he said. “We’re in a lift, in a really confined space.
“I couldn’t tell him to stop … It’s hard to explain now but the power dynamic was extraordinary. I couldn’t say no.”
“C” said he felt lucky when Jones would ask him to drive to the front door and get straight out of the car.
