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 ۲۰ years after the incidents.
The former police officer, now in his ۴۰s, 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 $۳۵۰ to $۶۰۰ 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?”
“Yes,” complainant J told the court.
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 ۲۲ 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 $۱۲۰,۰۰۰ 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.
“It is an opportunity to then go on to make a claim and an opportunity to cast himself in a different light after he lost his job,” Jones’s barrister told the court.
J earlier this week told the court he had decided to go to NSW police about his alleged assaults after seeing in the media that Jones had been arrested and charged in November ۲۰۲۴.
Bashir said on Wednesday during cross-examination: “You had from that moment decided to fabricate that Mr Jones sexually touched you as a young teen?”
“When you sent the email [to police] in November ۲۰۲۴, you did so as part of a decision to fabricate claims Jones sexually touched you as a teen?” Bashir asked.
“No, I wasn’t planning to fabricate anything,” complainant J replied.
Bashir said J hadn’t raised the alleged incidents when he was charged with drink-driving in the mid-۲۰۰۰s, or when he was charged with assault in the early ۲۰۲۰s or when he was subsequently facing termination from the police force.
J agreed he did not raise the allegations at those times.
Asked whether he saw Jones’s arrest as a “life-changing opportunity”, J said he was not after financial compensation and only wanted justice.
“I’ve been clear on this,” he told the court. “I don’t want anything from this. I won’t accept [money]. I don’t want anything but proper justice in relation to this matter.”
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Bashir alleged that J gave the police false statements about when Jones had given him the phone and car. The court heard that J originally told police Jones gave him the phone when he was ۱۴ or ۱۵, but he was in fact ۱۸.
J agreed after being shown documents that Jones gave him the car when he turned ۱۸ and had left school, and not when he turned ۱۷, as he had previously told the court.
“At the time I provided the details, I thought that was accurate,” J said on Wednesday.
Bashir suggested J’s claim that Jones increased his weekly stipend after Jones said he had “been a good boy” was also a fabrication. She said his stipend was increased by Jones when he had success in his sport.
Bashir: “Do you accept those payments, to your knowledge, were for the purpose of assisting you with training, competition and living expenses?”
“Yes. He did pay me to assist with training and competing … I don’t know if that was the reason for the increase in the payments,” J told the court.
Bashir then said: “It’s the case, isn’t it, that you are recasting these payments as something sinister when in fact your understanding at the time was that they were anything but?”
“No,” J replied in court on Wednesday.
Bashir’s Thursday cross-examination focused on inconsistencies between his police statement and evidence he gave this week in court.
Bashir pointed out during her cross-examination on Thursday that J had described it as “peck” in his police statement but described it as a “chomping motion” kiss in his evidence to the court.
J conceded that he “might” have got it “wrong” that Jones kissed him with a “chomping” motion during one of the alleged indecent assaults in Canberra.
“I might have got the kiss wrong, but there was definitely a kiss in that room,” he told the court. “I won’t steer away from the fact there was kiss because there was.”
Jones has denied all wrongdoing and said the allegations were either baseless or distorted the truth.
Bashir on Monday argued that the alleged victims in the case were egged on to complain by media rivals, and their reliability and credibility were questionable.
The trial continues.
