Day five of Alan Jones’ trial
Warning: Graphic content
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the fifth day of Alan Jones’ lengthy criminal trial on charges of indecent assault and sexual touching. Our reporters Clare Sibthorpe and Harriet Alexander will be bringing you the latest from the courtroom today.
This week, the NSW Local Court in Sydney’s historic Downing Centre court complex has heard allegations that Jones indecently assaulted a young athlete, starting with unwanted kissing when the man was a teenager in year 12 in the early 2000s. Jones denies the claims.
Our live coverage was paused on Wednesday after Local Court Judge Glenn Walsh temporarily imposed a non-publication order on the cross-examination of “J” by Jones’ barrister, Gabrielle Bashir, SC. That order was lifted on Thursday afternoon.
“J”, now in his early 40s, denied under questioning by Bashir that he had a financial motive for making the allegations against Jones, and denied that they were a fabrication.
“I don’t want to sue him,” he told the court. “I don’t want his money.”
He has given evidence that Jones groped him as he drove the then-radio host to his Fitzroy Falls farm. On Tuesday, “J” told the court that Jones had indecently assaulted him at the property after telling him to wear “a robe and nothing else”.
The complainant said he came forward to police after seeing reports about Jones’ arrest in November 2024 because he wanted justice.
Jones had supported the promising athlete financially, including paying him hundreds of dollars a week to focus on training and giving him a car and a mobile phone, the court heard.
Today, the man known as complainant “J” returns to the witness box for a fifth day. He will face further cross-examination that is expected to conclude this afternoon.
Bashir has asked “J” a series of questions about whether he read media reports containing similar allegations about Jones in 2023 before he spoke to police the following year. He said he did not.
The Crown alleges that Jones indecently assaulted or sexually touched six men between 2003 and 2020, and is seeking to prove 22 charges against him, including nine indecent assault charges against “J”.
The former broadcaster has emphatically denied wrongdoing, and Bashir said on Monday that the credibility and reliability of the complainants’ evidence would be tested.
“Rivalry, treachery, double-dealing, money, hatred, desperation, opportunism and more are all at the heart of this case,” Bashir said in her opening remarks to the court.
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.
‘J’ questioned about trips to Jones’ farm
Just before lunch, the cross-examination moved to questioning complainant “J” on his memory of his several trips to Jones’ Fitzroy Falls farm.
The man told defence barrister Gabrielle Bashir, SC, that he returned to Jones’ Fitzroy Falls farm for another trip with his family, after he was allegedly assaulted there, because he wanted to pick up a car Jones had said he could use.
Complainant “J” has told the court Jones gifted him a Nissan Pulsar when he was in his teens. That’s a separate car to the Toyota Echo he is now referring to.
“He said there was a car on the farm I could use and have, so I went for that purpose, and I asked if my family could come,” he told Bashir.
Court takes the lunch break
The court is taking a one-hour break for lunch, resuming at 2pm.
Jones’ barrister, Gabrielle Bashir, SC, has indicated that she will “surely” finish her cross-examination of complainant “J” today, and probably within the hour.
Complainant stands by his evidence
Warning: Graphic content
Defence Barrister Gabrielle Bashir, SC, has suggested there were further discrepancies between the 2024 police statement given by complainant “J” and his testimony earlier this week.
Now, they are talking about his account of an alleged incident of parallel masturbation at Jones’ Fitzroy Falls farm. “J” has previously said he wanted the incident over with as soon as possible.
The man accepted the accounts differed in certain details.
‘I was scared the whole time in that room’
Complainant “J” has told the court he was petrified when Alan Jones allegedly indecently assaulted him in the spare bedroom of the now-85-year-old’s Fitzroy Falls farm.
Defence barrister Gabrielle Bashir, SC, suggested none of the “penis wiggling, penis touching” ever happened.
“You would have pushed him off you if he ever tried to do such a thing, wouldn’t you?” Bashir asked.
The man replied: “I didn’t. I was very scared … I was petrified.
“I was scared the whole time in that room … and you keep on saying I’ve made up the word ‘freezing’ or something like that, or got it from somewhere. But that’s where you freeze, and you – it’s like you don’t have control of your body.”
‘Are you making your evidence up as you go along?’
Staying with a statement that complainant “J” gave to police, the line of questioning became tense as defence barrister Gabrielle Bashir, SC, accused “J” of concocting his evidence.
Bashir took “J” to his 2024 police statement in which he said that Jones tapped on the door of the spare bedroom at his Fitzroy Falls farm after the complainant went there to sleep. In the statement, he said Jones came into the room, put his arms around him and kissed him all over his mouth as he undid “J”’s robe.
“Your evidence in this court on Tuesday was that, in the bedroom, when he came into the room, he came closer to you and in a passionate voice was saying, ‘I love you, I love you mate’ and he pulled you in for a cuddle,” she said. “It’s your evidence.”
Jones offers a rare smile in court
Alan Jones has offered a rare smile after complainant “J” was grilled on whether he changed his evidence between making his police statement and giving his evidence in chief.
“J” told the court on Tuesday that when he was staying at Jones’s farm at Fitzroy Falls, Jones tapped on his bedroom door, entered the room and asked if everything was OK, before bringing him into his arms, telling “J” that he loved him and giving him a “smothering type kiss”.
But Jones’s barrister, Gabrielle Bashir, SC, pointed out that “J” had told police at an earlier date that there was “zero” conversation before the kiss was alleged to have occurred.
Bashir said: “It’s not there because it never happened, do you accept that?”
The alleged ‘robe and nothing else’ demand
Jones’ barrister, Gabrielle Bashir, SC, is questioning “J” on his account of being asked by Jones to “wear a robe and nothing else” after dinner at Jones’ Fitzroy Falls farmhouse, following the alleged pigsty kiss.
The man earlier testified that Jones asked him to have a shower and return wearing nothing but the robe. Bashir has suggested this recollection was based on allegations he’d heard in the news. The complainant rejected this suggestion.
“None of that, you being in a robe, him being in a robe, ever happened, did it?” Bashir asked.
The man replied: “Yes, it did. You keep saying everything I’m saying related to news allegations. I’m saying what happened then.”
Bashir took him to his police statement and said it included no description of being in a robe on the lounge with Jones.
“I don’t know if there is or isn’t, but I’m saying now there was,” “J” said.
An alleged kiss without warning
Defence barrister Gabrielle Bashir, SC, has begun this morning’s cross-examination grilling complainant “J” on his earlier testimony about an unwanted kiss he says Jones planted on him at the then-broadcaster’s Fitzroy Falls farm.
Bashir put to him that he first told the court that, as the pair stood near a pigsty, Jones gave no warning before he turned quickly, grabbed “J” and kissed him with a “chomping motion”.
Then, Bashir suggested, he changed this earlier version of events by telling the court that while they were looking at the pigs, Jones turned towards him and said, “I love you”.
Reporters granted permission to use phones
The Jones hearing has resumed and Local Court Judge Glenn Walsh has granted a number of media outlets permission to remain in court to observe and report on the evidence of the remaining five complainants in the case.
After some restrictions yesterday, the judge has also agreed that accredited media representatives may use their phones in the courtroom (for reporting purposes, and not for calls).
A lime green blazer and a pink shirt
Alan Jones has chosen a lime green linen blazer, paired with a matching paisley tie and a pale pink shirt, for his fifth day in court. He arrived at the Downing Centre a short time ago flanked by his lawyers Chris Murphy and Bryan Wrench.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: www.smh.com.au
