Former 2UE and 2GB radio broadcaster is facing 22 charges. Jones, 85, has pleaded not guilty
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A former student sports star has denied in a Sydney court that he “fabricated” indecent assault allegations against broadcaster Alan Jones after he lost his police job and fell on “extremely hard times”.
Jones’s defence barrister, Gabrielle Bashir SC, on Wednesday suggested to complainant J during cross-examination that he had a financial motive to report his alleged indecent assaults 20 years after the incidents.
The former police officer, now in his 40s, had earlier told Sydney’s Downing Centre local court that Jones had touched him sexually when he was a teenager. J was being financially supported by the broadcaster at the time.
J told the court earlier this week that Jones gifted him a Nokia mobile phone, a Nissan car and a stipend which rose from $350 to $600 a week over a nine-year period.
“Your evidence in relation to payments into your account from Belford [company] and the increase in payments has been you trying to assert Jones had an ulterior motive for making payments to you?” Bashir asked the former athlete.
J replied: “No, I wasn’t trying to assert that.”
Bashir continued: “Do you accept that those payments were for the purpose of assisting you for your training and competition and living expenses?”
The cross-examination of J could not immediately be reported as it was subject to an interim non-publication order. But judge Glenn Walsh lifted the order on Thursday afternoon.
Jones is facing 22 indecent assault and sexual touching charges in relation to six men. He has pleaded not guilty.
The court heard on Wednesday that J resigned from the police after he was convicted of assault and found to have breached the force’s code of conduct.
Bashir put to him that he lost his income of $120,000 a year and had to pay child support and rent, and had to move in with a relative. J denied during cross-examination that he had a gambling problem.
Challenged by the judge about the relevance of J’s financial problems to his complaint about the alleged indecent assaults by Jones, Bashir said: “A complaint like this, if successful, is a stepping stone to civil proceedings. I will be putting that to him.