source : the age
Warning: Graphic content
A former athlete who has alleged that Alan Jones sloppily kissed and groped him has denied having a financial motive for making the claims, or of inventing his story after learning that Jones had been arrested.
A non-publication order preventing the public from hearing evidence from the complainant known as “J” was lifted on Thursday afternoon after two days of cross-examination by Jones’ barrister, Gabrielle Bashir, SC.
Bashir’s questioning, sometimes terse, accused “J” of concocting claims Jones had kissed him at his properties.
Jones is standing trial in the Local Court on 22 counts of indecent assault, nine of which relate to “J”, and two counts of sexual touching without consent. He strenuously denies the allegations.
The court heard Alan Jones paid “J”, a young athlete, hundreds of dollars a week to help with his athletic career from his late teens, in the early 2000s, to his late 20s.
On Tuesday, “J” gave evidence that the payments stopped when he was not competing any more.
Bashir suggested to “J” on Wednesday that the payments stopped once he was financially stable and no longer on “struggle street”. She put to him that at the time of his police report he was under financial pressure amid employment difficulties.
Asked by Bashir if he understood he could sue Jones on the basis of his claims, “J” said he believed the deadline for civil action had passed.
When Bashir suggested he “saw [Jones’] arrest as an opportunity to get the money going again”, “J” replied: “I can’t control what you suggest or what you think, but it’s not true.
“I don’t want anything but proper justice for this matter,” he said.
The court heard “J”, after his athletics career came to an end, went on to become a police officer.
The court heard allegations he had issues with gambling. But “J” denied this, and the prosecution applied for a provisional non-publication order over his evidence that Judge Glenn Walsh lifted on Thursday after hearing that the matters would not arise again.
Jones’ legal team had alleged “J” had agitated the claims against the wealthy broadcaster because he needed the money. “J” repeated the denial, that money was his motive, on Thursday.
“I’ve been over this and no,” he said.
“I wish there was something we could do to establish this and say [I] can not take money from the defendant, I won’t seek that, I am happy to sign a document or affirm it now.
“I don’t want to sue him, I don’t want his money.”
The court on Thursday watched as “J” repeatedly closed his eyes and “put himself back there” into his memories in Jones’ home.
In one flashback, “J” recalled driving Jones to his Fitzroy Falls property in 2004. Jones awoke as they went around a bend, and “J” recited line-by-line the conversation he claims to remember.
Then, he said, Jones put his hand on his thigh, and later down his pants and squeezed “J”’s penis “the hardest it’s ever been squeezed”.
Jones’ barrister asked what he did in response.
“You were physically superior to Alan Jones?” Bashir asked “J”.
“Not necessarily,” the man said, before agreeing he was “physically superior” to Jones.
Bashir said “J” had concocted the story.
“You were driving the car, with the brake under your foot, you had the key, you managed to slow the car down when you saw workmen,” she said.
“Your account of what occurred in the car is not true.”
“Yes it is,” the man replied.
During hours of cross-examination, Bashir put to “J” that Jones had never said he would increase his weekly payments because “J” had been a “good boy”, and the payments in fact correlated with his sporting costs. She suggested “J” was “recasting these payments as something sinister”. The man disagreed.
However, he acknowledged later in the questioning that his initial 2024 police statement contained some incorrect dates, and he had not received a mobile phone or a car from Jones until he had left school.
“You were trying to paint a picture of Alan Jones giving you a phone and car when you were a schoolboy, weren’t you?” Bashir asked.
The man denied this. He rejected that he was “trying to fit a schoolboy narrative of sexual touching”.
Earlier in the week, “J” testified that he first met Jones when he was 14 or 15 after the broadcaster interviewed him about his sporting achievements.
He had said that Jones gave him a mobile phone shortly after this meeting. Sometime when he was in year 12, he told the court, Jones gave him a car.
The trial continues.
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.
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