Alan Jones trial live updates: ‘Complainant C’ returns for further cross-examination as alleged indecent assault, sexual touching trial continues

Warning: Graphic content

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of day 10 of Alan Jones’ criminal trial on charges of indecent assault and sexual touching. My colleague Perry Duffin will be bringing you the latest from the courtroom today.

The NSW Local Court in Sydney’s historic Downing Centre court building will hear further evidence 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.

Jones is charged with indecently assaulting “C” eight times over a five-month period by touching and kissing him without his consent.

“C” told the court yesterday that he broke down sobbing when he told then-2GB host Ray Hadley about the alleged assaults.

He said last week that he told Jones “no” repeatedly before the then 2GB host kissed him for the first time in the lift of the broadcaster’s harbourside apartment, but the “extraordinary” power imbalance stopped him speaking out as the alleged assaults continued.

He also told the court that Jones touched him under the table on the penis over his clothing at a lunch in Sydney in front of other guests. He said one guest asked him after the lunch if he had “copped a feel”, a remark that left him “deeply embarrassed”.

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.

We are now in week three of Alan Jones’ criminal trial, and there are many weeks ahead.

Six men, who were between their late teens and their 30s at the time of the alleged incidents between 2003 and 2020, are giving evidence in the NSW Local Court trial in Sydney. Here’s what to expect over the coming weeks.

Complainant “C”, who started giving evidence on Friday, remains in the witness box. Witnesses related to his allegations will be up next. Evidence related to the first complainant, “J”, a former young athlete, has been completed.

Four more men will give evidence after “C” and related witnesses. The Crown has foreshadowed they will give the following evidence. Jones vehemently denies the allegations.

• Complainant “F”, who was a 17-year-old working in media, is expected to allege that Jones squeezed his buttock through his clothing at a news event in Sydney. Prosecutor Georgina Wright, SC told the court that “F” told his mother that Jones “grabbed my bum” but he decided not to report it because he felt that nobody would believe his word over the broadcaster’s.
• Complainant “M”, an athlete, is expected to say that Jones sent him fresh flowers each week for a year after he visited Jones’ apartment and made a comment about the floral arrangements. He alleges Jones hugged and kissed him on the corner of the mouth for a second or two at a public event when he was in his early 30s.
• “M” will also allege that he went to Jones’ apartment some years later and Jones pushed his body against his and kissed him from the cheek to the corner of his mouth. He recalled feeling Jones’ genitals pressed up against his upper inner thigh. Wright foreshadowed that “M” would give evidence that he pushed Jones back and said “OK mate” before leaving the apartment.
• Complainant “A”, who was 17 at the time of the alleged offence, is expected to say that Jones put his tongue inside his mouth when he was visiting the broadcaster’s Fitzroy Falls property. Wright foreshadowed that “A” would say he froze and didn’t know what to do. He alleges that Jones also put his hand on his bottom. The mother of “A” is expected to give evidence that her son later wrote her a note that said something like “someone in power did something they should not have”.
• Complainant “H”, who was aged in his early 30s, will allege Jones met him at a fundraising event in Sydney and used his hand to touch the top of his back, sliding slowly down his spine and resting his hand on the top of his bottom.
  

Warning: Graphic content

Complainant “C”, the second of six men slated to give evidence in the trial, enters his third day of evidence today. He has alleged Jones touched and kissed him without his consent.

His cross-examination by defence barrister Gabrielle Bashir, SC, started on Monday afternoon. Here are the key parts of his evidence so far.

• “C” said he spoke to then-2GB host Ray Hadley about Jones after he heard The Sydney Morning Herald’s Peter FitzSimons was looking into similar allegations against Jones.
• His purpose in speaking to FitzSimons was not to reveal his own allegations publicly, he told the court, but “just let him know it’s true … [or] at the very least it happened to me”.
• “C” said that he agreed to meet the Herald’s chief investigative reporter Kate McClymont at a later date and gave her permission to write about his allegations in an anonymised form.
• He said he initially declined to give a police statement before doing so in May 2024.
• “C” said he received a mixed response from friends and others in whom he confided about the alleged indecent assaults, and that some of his friends would “make jokes about what I told them Alan did to me”.
• Bashir asked “C” a series of questions about text messages he sent to Jones that he agreed were flirtatious. The complainant maintained it was how he had to engage with Jones to “keep him at bay”.

Jones denies the allegations and is defending the charges. The trial resumes at 10am today.

Today, defence barrister Gabrielle Bashir, SC, continues her cross-examination of “C”.

Among the lines of questioning yesterday was a series of text messages between Jones and “C” that have been tendered in evidence. “C” has agreed some of those messages were flirtatious.

He told the court he was “flirting with him because he was the most powerful person in Australia”.

There were many similar messages “but that doesn’t change what he did to me”, “C” said.