A driver for Alan Jones aspired to be a producer but was required to make the ۲GB host’s breakfast of soft-boiled eggs with bread soldiers, clean his bathroom at the radio station and iron underpants, a Sydney court has heard.
Complainant C told Jones’s indecent assault trial on Friday he was “star-struck” when the broadcaster offered to pay him $۴۰,۰۰۰ a year to be his driver in the mid-۲۰۰۰s. It was his dream job, C said in Downing Centre local court.
C was unofficially a producer but was known as Jones’s driver at ۲GB and his duties included household tasks at Jones’s Macquarie Street apartment. There were menial tasks like photocopying to be done at the radio station.
“Alan had a kitchen in his office and I had to make soft-boiled eggs and Burgen bread … and cut it into soldiers,” C said on Friday. “I took it in on a tray and had a cloth napkin on my arm.”
C said he had to loiter around the studio waiting for an opportunity to go in because if he left the empty tray too long he was berated by the broadcaster.
“It was pretty aggressive; ‘get this out of here’ sort of thing,” C said when questioned by prosecutor Georgina Wright.
Jones has pleaded not guilty to ۲۰ indecent assault charges and two counts of sexual touching against six men.
Complainant C, the second alleged victim to give evidence at the trial, told the court he grew up listening to talkback radio and all he ever wanted to do was work at a radio station. But, C said, he did not want to be a chauffeur or a butler.
After the show ended each day he drove Jones home, the court was told. C wanted to go back and work at the radio station but was often required to complete household tasks under the direction of Jones’s butler.
He said he was given the smaller items to iron, including handkerchiefs and underpants. “If I stuffed it up it wouldn’t have been the end of the world,” C said.
C started working at ۲GB when he was ۱۸ years old.
He was given a foot in the door by fellow shockjock Ray Hadley, who paid him for three months out of his own pocket before he secured full-time employment.
Complainant C didn’t sign a contract because Jones told him contracts tended to “intimidate young people,” he told the court.
“I just wanted to work in radio,” C said. “It was a dream to work at that radio station, and to be able to say I worked with Alan Jones was as good as it gets for a young kid who wants to work in radio.”
One of his tasks was to deliver flowers to people for Jones, and he remembered delivering them to a diver before they won an Olympic gold medal.
The trial before judge Glenn Walsh continues.
