The mother of a man who alleges Alan Jones kissed and touched him non-consensually when he was 17 wept in court when being shown a letter from her son.
Jones, 85, is on trial for 19 counts of indecent assault and two counts of sexual touching without consent against five male complainants between 2003 and 2020. He denies the alleged acts occurred.
The fifth and final complainant, dubbed “A”, alleges Jones put his tongue in his mouth and touched his bottom at the former broadcaster’s Fitzroy Falls farm. He was 17 and Jones was in his 70s.
The alleged assault happened four years after “A” reached out to Jones when he was 13, seeking help for his family’s financial hardship. A friendship ensued in which Jones showered the boy with compliments and supported his family with more than $100,000 in renovations and legal fees.
Giving evidence at the Downing Centre Local Court on Tuesday, “A”’s mother broke down in tears as she was taken to a letter her son gave her 10 days after returning from a weekend spent at the former 2GB host’s Southern Highlands farm.
‘It will be my word against him and he’s a powerful man.’
Complainant ‘A’ to his mother
The woman told prosecutor Georgina Wright SC that “A” became withdrawn after he returned from the farm and he wasn’t sleeping. She said he handed her a handwritten note while saying he didn’t want to talk about it.
The letter, the court earlier heard, said that something happened at Fitzroy Falls and someone did something they shouldn’t have.
“The reason I don’t go to sleep until late is because when I close my eyes, I get flashbacks,” he wrote.
“Whilst I was physically strong enough to prevent what happened from happening, it showed me the power of money.”
Through tears, the woman told Wright that after reading the letter she asked her son if he wanted to report it to police. He responded that he hadn’t been raped.
“[He said] it probably is not a big thing in the scheme of it, and it will be my word against him and he’s a powerful man,” she said.
The witness said that Jones regularly invited her son to lunches and breakfasts at his harbourside apartment but never invited her. She was “really comfortable” allowing him to see Jones, including spending the weekend at his farm, as she trusted him as a mentor.
“I’d received emails [from Jones] and was told what a wonderful young man [my son] was, and I was just so pleased to have an older mentor in [his] life that was interested in lots of different things – sport, art, theatre – who saw that my son was as intelligent as he is and engaging,” she said.
The woman said she told “A” to cease contact with Jones after receiving the note.
Asked why she continued contact with Jones, she said she was “scared” he would stop helping her financially. The woman said that she was vulnerable due to hardships, including the death of a close family member.
“I think we were close to getting [her financial needs] finalised, and it embarrasses me that I kept in touch with him, but I did,” she said.
In his earlier testimony, “A” said he agreed to the weekend trip to the farm after declining many invites there.
After the alleged assault in the hallway, “A” said he recoiled, stepped away and said, “that’s enough, Alan”. He felt “very uncomfortable” as Jones grinned, and went into the en suite of his bedroom where he scrubbed his mouth out.
“A” earlier denied to defence barrister Gabrielle Bashir, SC, that he deceived Jones throughout his teenage years to extract more than $100,000 in financial support for his family. He rejected that he and his mother intended to obtain as much financial assistance from Jones as possible.
He disagreed that his mother had contributed more to emails signed off by the then-teenager – discussing the renovation and related legal arrangements – than he claimed.
In texts exchanged between Jones and “A”, Jones heaped praise on the teenager, calling him sophisticated, articulate and a “special young man”.
Telling him he loved him dearly, Jones said he was the most brilliant young teenager he’d ever met and a “beautiful human being”. After they shared a meal, Jones wrote: “You looked wonderful, fresh and bright – I can’t believe you’re 14 years of age.”
Eventually, Jones said costs were “getting out of hand” and there “can’t be an endless dripping tap” of money.
While “A” first spoke to police in 2018, a formal investigation did not begin until several years later, following media reports about separate allegations against Jones.
The court heard “A” and his mother connected with the Herald’s chief investigative journalist Kate McClymont after reading a story she wrote about Jones in 2023.
The trial continues.
Support is available from the National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732) or the Men’s Referral Service on 1300 766 491.
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