The mother of a man, who has accused Alan Jones of incidentally assaulted him when he was a teenager, has denied attempting to leech money from the broadcaster as she continued to email him even after the allegation was raised, a court has been told.
Mr Jones is facing trial in Sydney’s Downing Centre Local Court, having pleaded not guilty to 19 counts of indecent assault and two counts of sexual touching having denied the allegations made by five male complainants.
One of Mr Jones’ alleged victims, who can only be known as “Complainant A”, has alleged he was 17 when Mr Jones kissed him without his consent and grabbed his buttock at the ex-2GB host’s Fitzroy Falls home.
“A” first had contact with Mr Jones several years earlier when he wrote to him about his family’s financial struggles, the court has been told.
Over several years Mr Jones provided more than $100,000 to assist the family, helped them to renegotiate the mortgage on their home and have it reduced by $600,000, as well as putting them in contact with lawyers and builders.
The court has been told “A” and his mother had extensive email contact with Mr Jones over several years.
The mother previously told the court that 10 days after “A” returned from Fitzroy Falls, he handed her a note saying something of a “sexual nature” happened, but did not elaborate and requested she not ask him about it.
Later that year, police spoke with “A”.
The mother told the court on Friday she continued to have contact with Mr Jones after “A” had raised the allegation with her. The court was told that the woman emailed Mr Jones about her son’s university application which he failed to submit on time.
The mother testified she was seeking “guidance” from Mr Jones, who suggested that the family email a professor and copy him in.
She sent the email the day after police spoke with her son.
The court was told that the woman also emailed Mr Jones about repairs to her car, but denied she was attempting to entice him to pay the bill, telling the court she was asking for his advice.
She also sent him an email about “A” getting an SCG membership.
The woman told the court she was in a “web of dependency” with Mr Jones.
“You did not continue to communicate with Mr Jones because you were scared of his influence over your finances,” Mr Jones’ barrister, Claire O’Neill, asked
“I absolutely was,” the woman replied.
“You have told lies in this court about why you continued to have contact with Mr Jones in 2017,” Ms O’Neill said.
“I absolutely disagree, that’s rubbish,” the woman said.
“You were taking advantage of Mr Jones’ generosity as long as you could,” Ms O’Neill said.
“Absolute rubbish,” the woman replied.
During an at-times tense cross-examination, “A”’s mother told the court that she emailed Mr Jones about the “decline” in her relationship with her son.
“My son, who was a child, suffered trauma and didn’t share that trauma with anyone,” she said.
“It had an effect on his relationship with me, and a lot of people.”
She was later asked by Crown prosecutor Georgina Wright SC what she meant by “trauma”
The woman told the court she was “referring to what happened to him at Fitzroy Falls”.
The trial continues.