The mother of the youngest alleged victim of Alan Jones continued to seek advice from the broadcaster after the teenager was allegedly indecently assaulted at Jones’s Fitzroy Falls farm, a Sydney court has heard.
The divorced mother told the Downing Centre court she had developed a pattern of not trusting herself and she continued her correspondence with Jones because: “I knew he knew about everything; he had an opinion about everything.
“I was in a web of dependency with Mr Jones,” the witness said on her last day in the witness box on Friday.
She previously said she corresponded with Jones after he allegedly kissed the ۱۷-year-old and put his tongue inside his mouth out of fear Jones would withdraw his financial support.
During cross examination, defence barrister Claire O’Neill suggested the mother continued to correspond with Jones not because she was scared but because she wanted more money out of him.
O’Neill asked: “You did not continue to communicate with Mr Jones because you were scared of his influence over your finances, did you?”
The witness replied: “I absolutely was.”
Her son, complainant A, is one of five men who allege Jones, ۸۵, sexually touched or indecently assaulted them between ۲۰۰۳ and ۲۰۲۰. All five have now completed their evidence.
Jones has pleaded not guilty to ۲۱ charges of indecent assault and sexual touching.
Under cross-examination by the defence, the witness agreed she wrote to Jones about her son’s late university application, a superannuation payment, outstanding legal fees and attaining a Sydney Cricket Ground membership for her son.
She was shown an email in which she provided Jones with an update on her son’s university application. The defence asked: “You wanted to lay the groundwork for having Mr Jones pay the [legal] bill?”
The mother said the suggestion was “absolute rubbish” and she was “proud of him” for finishing year ۱۲ under difficult circumstances and wanted to convey that in the email.
She agreed she sent Jones information about the cost of repairs to her Land Rover but denied she was asking him to pay the bill.
“You have told lies in this court about why you continued to have contact with Jones?” O’Neill asked.
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The witness replied: “Absolutely disagree, that’s rubbish.”
O’Neill: “You were taking advantage of Mr Jones’s generosity for as long as you could?”
Witness: “Absolute rubbish.”
When she was asked why she shared personal information with Jones about the deterioration of her relationship with her son she became emotional.
“My son, who was a child, suffered trauma and didn’t share it with anyone and it had an effect on his relationship with me and a lot of other people.”
Asked by prosecutor Georgina Wright what that trauma was, she replied: “I was referring to what happened to him at Fitzroy Falls”.
The trial continues.
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