Broadcaster Ray Hadley has told a Sydney court he used a homophobic slur and derogatory names when talking about his colleague Alan Jones, after ۲GB withdrew a secret offer of a $۴m contract to take over Jones’s coveted breakfast slot.
Hadley agreed under cross-examination by defence barrister Gabrielle Bashir SC that he told police in ۲۰۱۹ that Jones had recruited colleagues at ۲GB to “dig up some dirt” on him.
Jones is on trial over ۲۰ charges of indecent assault and two counts of sexual touching involving six men. The ۸۵-year-old has pleaded not guilty.
On his second day giving evidence at Downing Centre local court, Hadley testified that a colleague had told him Jones had “marshalled the troops and said ‘Dig up some dirt on Hadley’”.
Hadley in ۲۰۱۹ had walked into Jones’s office after being accused of an unrelated assault against a colleague, and called the breakfast host “a cunt and a dog”, according to a police statement from the time that was raised in court .
The assault allegation against Hadley was dropped when ۲GB CCTV showed nothing had happened, Hadley told Jones’s trial.
Hadley agreed that he had “an animosity towards [Jones] at that time”. He said he often called him a “grub”, and that in a text exchange shown to him by Bashir he had called Jones “a faggot”.
Bashir, when defending Jones in court, has said the allegations against her client were “trial by media” fuelled by hatred and jealousy. Hadley “wanted to destroy” Jones and to “tear him apart”, the barrister has said previously.
Bashir put to Hadley on Wednesday that he was having a difficult time after his secret contract to replace Jones was torn up and Jones was re-signed in May ۲۰۱۹ for two more years.
“Not at all, I maintained the same job I’d done for the previous ۱۷ years and inadvertently Mr Jones had doubled my salary,” Hadley replied.
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Hadley disagreed that the pinnacle of his career was attaining the breakfast radio slot, insisting that “going from $۲m to $۴m” while remaining on the Ray Hadley Morning Show was the pinnacle.
Hadley told the court he was approached by management in late ۲۰۱۸ and they said they’d had enough of Jones and his then-defamation cases and offered him the job.
“I didn’t want to get out of bed at ۱.۳۰am, but the money made me do it,” Hadley said.
Bashir suggested to Hadley that a later text to Jones – who was suffering from ill health – was rubbish. It read: “I love you.”
The trial before judge Glenn Walsh continues.
