Alan Jones held ‘extraordinary power’, accuser says

By Adelaide Lang

A former radio station staffer has denied that explicit texts between him and Alan Jones gave him power over the longtime shock jock.

Jones, who reigned over Sydney’s airwaves for 35 years, has pleaded not guilty to 22 charges of indecent assault and sexual touching without consent.

Eight of the charges relate to the former radio station staffer, who was 18 years old and “starstruck” when he met the veteran broadcaster, now 85.

He claims Jones later repeatedly kissed him without consent in a lift at his home and workplace and groped him in a car and at an event.

The alleged offending occurred over five months.

The former radio station staffer was grilled on Tuesday about texts he sent to Jones after the alleged indecent assaults, some of which expressed love for the older man and some of which he instigated.

He told the court he felt pressured to engage with the former Wallabies coach and conservative commentator because Jones was “the most powerful person in Australia” at the time.

The former radio station staffer said he had a constant fear Jones would use his influence to get him fired or to reveal “what happened between us”, which he felt was held over him.

“He had an extraordinary amount of power,” he told the court.

But Jones’s barrister Gabrielle Bashir SC suggested he held the power over the famous breakfast host because he could expose the explicit messages.

“No,” the former radio staffer replied, stressing that Jones had his lewd messages as well.

He similarly rejected the proposition that he had been lying when he said he felt compelled to send lewd messages to Jones because of the power he wielded.

The former radio staffer denied his messages were at odds with allegations of being non-consensually groped and kissed by Jones over five months when they worked together.

“These messages are consistent with someone who had been groomed for 10 years to think that was an acceptable way to talk to him,” he told the court.

He has denied lying about the alleged indecent assaults more than a dozen times during an at-times terse cross-examination.

The former radio staffer became frustrated when Ms Bashir suggested he hated reading the messages between him and Jones because they painted his allegations as fabrications.

“I don’t like hearing a bloke, 40 years older, writing to a straight guy, talking about wanting to play with his penis. Get real,” he retorted before apologising.

The former radio station staffer is one of six men who allege Jones kissed, groped or subjected them to sexual misconduct between 2003 and 2020 across Sydney and the NSW Southern Highlands.

In one text to Jones, he revealed he was a bachelor again and referenced his genitals with a nickname they both used.

“I sent that because I knew he would like it,” he told the court.

He said he wouldn’t describe the message as “titillating”, insisting he felt like it was a way of “currying favour” with Jones.

The man accepted that he had been untruthful in communications with Jones but maintained it was how he felt he needed to talk to him at the time.

He also acknowledged there were inconsistencies in his accounts of the first alleged groping.

Ms Bashir has accused the former staffer of rewriting history.

He testified on Monday to reporting the abuse to fellow 2GB host Ray Hadley, only to swear Jones’s on-air rival to secrecy.

Hadley put the staffer in touch with journalist Peter FitzSimons, who was researching similar allegations about Jones, the court was told.

Jones is alleged to have committed the offences against six men during the latter part of his 35-year broadcasting career, when he dominated Sydney’s airwaves.

None of the charges alleges grooming.

He also broadcast to a national audience for years as a regular commentator on Nine’s Today show and a host of a political discussion show on Sky News.

1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)

National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service 1800 211 028