Jones’s lawyers suggest man mounting a smear campaign
Tom Wark |
Unflattering evidence about Alan Jones, such as descriptions of his anatomy, is merely an attempt to humiliate him, the shock jock’s lawyer says.
Former broadcast king Jones, 85, has pleaded not guilty to 22 counts of indecent assault and sexual touching without consent.
Nine of the indecent assault offences, which Jones denies, were allegedly committed against a young athlete who received financial payments from the man more than 40 years his senior.
The athlete, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, is facing his fifth day of questioning at the end of the first week of a marathon court hearing.
He has previously given evidence of an occasion where he and Jones engaged in mutual masturbation and provided a description of the former Wallabies coach failing to get an erection.
“The account that you’ve given is an attempt to humiliate Mr Jones … an attempt to smear him,” Ms Bashir posited to the athlete.
“You wouldn’t know because you’ve never seen Mr Jones’s penis.”
“Yes, I did,” the witness replied.
Six men – including the athlete – allege Jones kissed, groped, or subjected them to sexual misconduct between 2003 and 2020 at locations across Sydney and the NSW Southern Highlands.
Later, the athlete admitted to multiple instances where his evidence in court did not match what he told police about alleged incidents with Jones at the broadcaster’s estate south of Sydney.
In one instance, the athlete told police Jones pulled his underpants all the way down to his ankles in the younger man’s bedroom, but he later admitted they were only a quarter of the way down his legs.
He further conceded he could not recall Jones telling him “I love you” before kissing him near the Fitzroy Falls farm’s pigsty, as he had told police.
“Are you making up your evidence as you’re going along?” Ms Bashir later asked.
“Absolutely not,” the athlete said.
The young man said the experience in his bedroom, where he alleged Jones grabbed his genitals on the bed, was the most fearful he had ever been.
He also told the court while Jones did not explicitly threaten him with cutting off financial payments for not following through on sexually charged requests, he feared the influence of the powerful broadcaster.
Jones allegedly told the man to come back from a shower wearing nothing but a robe, but the man did not fully comply.
“I thought there would be repercussions … I didn’t like when he was disappointed in me, I felt quite disappointed in myself,” the athlete said.
Ms Bashir repeatedly questioned the man on whether he fabricated accounts of Jones’s abuse based on media reports of the allegations against him.
“This story of Alan Jones telling you to put on a robe, that’s been based on allegations you heard on news reports,” the barrister asked.
“No, it’s based on what he said on the night,” the athlete said.
The fact the young man never tried to escape the property and even played tennis with Jones after multiple incidents of alleged assault indicated the story was false, Ms Bashir said.
“It brings me so much comfort every time you say he wasn’t there or it didn’t happen, because it did,” the witness replied.
“I don’t believe I was free (to go) … I was still young in the head.”
The answers given under cross-examination can now be reported after Judge Glenn Walsh lifted a suppression order that prevented their publication until late Thursday afternoon.
AAP