Source : the age
Warning: Graphic content
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of day seven of Alan Jones’ lengthy criminal trial on charges of indecent assault and sexual touching. Court reporter Clare Sibthorpe and I will be bringing you the latest from the hearing today.
If day seven looks familiar, you’re right. Yesterday was to be the seventh day of the trial, but the Crown foreshadowed that it wanted to amend seven of the charges in the case. This triggered an adjournment for the parties to make legal arguments.
After hearing those arguments, Judge Glenn Walsh said the Crown did not require the court’s permission to make the changes, which do not relate to the alleged physical acts in the case. He concluded that it did not result in prejudice to Jones and his right to a fair trial.
Jones’ lawyers did not object to an amendment to one of the charges but had opposed the amendments to the remaining six.
The trial is expected to resume in earnest today in the NSW Local Court in Sydney’s historic Downing Centre building with more evidence relating to complainant “J”, the first witness to give evidence in the trial.
In the first week of the trial, the court heard allegations that Jones indecently assaulted “J”, a young athlete, starting with unwanted kissing when the man was a teenager in year 12. Jones denies the claims.
On Tuesday, the older brother of “J” and the complainant’s ex-girlfriend gave evidence about what they say he told them about the alleged assaults.
His brother said he had not witnessed Jones acting inappropriately towards “J”, but that the complainant told him in 2024, after Jones’ arrest, that he was one the men who had come forward.
The ex-girlfriend of “J” said he confided in her 20 years ago that Jones had touched him inappropriately. She said he looked like he had “seen a ghost” before he made the disclosure and swore her to secrecy.
Her evidence continues today. The mother of “J” and his former sporting coach are also slated to give evidence.
While we don’t expect to hear from him today, a man known as “C” will be the next complainant to give evidence. He may start his evidence as early as Friday.
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.
The former broadcaster has emphatically denied wrongdoing and his 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.
The court is taking a break until 12.15pm. The next witness slated to give evidence is the former sporting coach of “J”.
Prosecutor Georgina Wright, SC, is now-examining the ex-girlfriend of “J”, after the cross-examination concluded.
Wright asks her about the message “J” sent her in December 2024, when he promised to “look after” her after she gave a statement to the police about Jones.
The message was very long, she agreed, spanning up to two pages. She had responded to it with a love heart emoji, the court heard.
The ex-girlfriend of “J” told the court that she was at his 21st birthday around the mid-2000s, and that their break-up also happened that year about this time.
The relevance of this is that she has told the court “J” confided in her 20 years ago that Jones had touched him inappropriately, and that this was before their relationship ended.
Jones’ barrister, Gabrielle Bashir, SC, asks if she is sure they didn’t break up about two years earlier. She says she is sure they didn’t.
The ex-girlfriend of “J” is being grilled repeatedly about her evidence that “J” told her about what had happened to him when he returned from Jones’ property “down the south coast”.
She has told the court the conversation took place in the mid-2000s before they broke up.
She agrees this was a reconstruction and “J” did not say he had been “down the south coast” in those terms. What she meant was “Alan Jones’ place” in Fitzroy Falls in the NSW Southern Highlands, she told the court.
“You just surmised that he was down there?” Jones’ barrister, Gabrielle Bashir, SC, said.
“No, I knew he was down there,” the woman replied.
There have been a number of legal arguments during the cross-examination of the ex-girlfriend of complainant “J”, during which she is required to leave the courtroom so that it doesn’t taint her evidence.
Judge Glenn Walsh is keeping the tone light as she is asked repeatedly to leave the witness box.
“Guess what? Time for some exercise,” he quips as she is prompted to leave the courtroom again.
“Let’s have [her] back in; she must be getting very fit by now,” he adds when she is ushered back in.
“I think we’re in the home straight,” he told the witness.
The ex-girlfriend of “J” agrees that in early 2024 she was ordered to pay a fine of over $1000 and this was a significant sum for her at the time.
She agreed that related orders connected with that fine covered the period when she made her first statement to police about Alan Jones in late 2024, and at this time she was also working on maintaining sobriety.
Jones’ barrister, Gabrielle Bashir, SC, put to her that at this time “help from ‘J’ would have been very welcome”.
“No, I didn’t need financial help,” the woman said.
The ex-girlfriend of “J” tells the court that both she and “J” had been on a sobriety “journey” and that he became sober about 2.5 to three years ago.
“Was it before or after you reconnected in 2023?” Jones’ barrister, Gabrielle Bashir, SC, asked.
“It was before that,” the woman said.
The ex-girlfriend of “J” is taken to a message he sent her in December 2024.
He said Alan Jones would be going to court the next day, in a reference to the former broadcaster being charged over offences involving the complainant.
He told his ex-girlfriend that “my name won’t be released”, the court heard, but “honestly I don’t care if it does get released because eventually it will happen”.
“What did you understand by that?” Jones’ barrister, Gabrielle Bashir, SC, asked.
The ex-girlfriend of complainant “J” has now returned to the witness box for further cross-examination by Alan Jones’ barrister, Gabrielle Bashir, SC.
She is being taken to a second statement that she gave police in 2024.
The second statement said “J” did not talk to her at a coffee meeting in 2024 about an alleged conversation they had 20 years ago. This revised the first statement by inserting the word “not” into the document.
She has told the court that “J” confided in her in the mid-2000s that Jones had touched him inappropriately and swore her to secrecy.
Judge Glenn Walsh has delivered a more detailed judgment in court this morning, setting out his reasons for allowing the Crown to amend six of the charges against Alan Jones.
A seventh charge was amended with the consent of Jones’ defence team. The judge said the changes did not affect the description of the physical acts alleged by the prosecution and did not result in prejudice to Jones.
