A champion athlete who was 14 when he met Alan Jones has told a Sydney court the broadcaster befriended him after he broke a record, and went on to give him a mobile phone, a car and up to $600 a week.
Complainant J gave evidence on Monday during the first day of Jones’s indecent assault and sexual touching trial at Sydney local court. Jones, 85, has pleaded not guilty.
J said Jones first contacted him through his coach and invited the teenager to visit him at home on multiple occasions while the alleged victim was still at school.
J told the court he caught the train to Circular Quay and visited Jones at his Macquarie Street apartment and they went out for a Chinese meal. After the meal, while they were watching tennis, Jones allegedly made comments about the size of an athlete’s penis. Jones said he had “a big cock”.
J said he took the “strange comment” as his cue to leave Jones’s apartment.
Jones gave him a hug and said “I love you mate”, J said. he told the court he replied with words to the effect of: “I love you too, you’ve done a lot for me.”
J alleged that Jones put his arm out for a “cuddle”.
“He pulled me slightly towards him and gave me a peck kiss on the lips,” the complainant told the court.
Prosecutor Georgina Wright asked J: “Did you consent to being kissed on the mouth that night?”
He replied: “No, I wasn’t given the opportunity.”
Jones’s arms were “by my side”, the complainant said. He didn’t kiss Jones back and “froze”.
J said the kiss lasted for “half a second” and afterwards Jones’s “demeanour changed immediately” from “passionate I love you” to “business mode”. “I walked out and got the train home,” he said.
J at the time had a girlfriend and had discussed that with Jones, the court was told.
Jones has denied all wrongdoing and said the allegations were either baseless or they distorted the truth.
Jones’s defence barrister Gabrielle Bashir SC earlier on Monday argued the alleged victims in the case were egged on to complain by media rivals.
This included, Bashir alleged, shockjock Ray Hadley and Sydney Morning Herald columnist Peter FitzSimons.
Bashir alleged FitzSimons harboured an intense dislike of Jones and encouraged complainants to make complaints about Jones.
Bashir also alleged that FitzSimons passed information to the Sydney Morning Herald’s investigative reporter Kate McClymont.
J was the first of six complainants who are expected to give evidence of their alleged indecent assault by Jones, who is facing 22 charges. The trial at Downing Centre local court is expected to run for four months and hear from 76 witnesses.
The judge, Glenn Walsh, was expected to hear from the six men who the prosecution will argue were significantly younger when they were allegedly indecently assaulted by the now 85-year-old Jones between 2003 and 2020.
J told the court via CCTV that he went to visit Jones at his 2GB studios in Pyrmont and he told him his mother was a single mum.
“[He] praised me about my athletics, asked me about my athletics career, it was all about athletics, and what school I went to, he asked about my family,” J said.
The complainant said Jones always introduced him to people as being from “No 1, Struggle Street”, and he didn’t mind that.
Bashir said the reliability and credibility of the complainants would be questioned.
“This story sold newspapers,” Bashir alleged to the court. “Rivalry, treachery, double-dealing, money, hatred, desperation, opportunism and more are all at the heart of this case.”
The 22 charges at the judge-alone trial include 20 indecent assault and two sexual touching charges, the court was told in pre-trial hearings last month. In 2018, the offence of indecent assault was replaced by sexual touching. It carries a maximum penalty of five years in jail.
The trial continues.
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