The only person an athlete lied to about being kissed and groped by Alan Jones was his mother, a court has been told.
The athlete, one of six men accusing the former broadcast king of sexual touching, concluded three days of cross-examination in a Sydney courtroom facing questions about why he took so long to report assaults that allegedly occurred in the mid-2000s.
The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, gave a statement to police only after media reported in December 2023 about other allegations against Jones, the court has heard.
As the reports emerged, the man’s mother – who knew of her son’s long association with the shock jock – asked whether he had ever experienced anything similar at the hands of Jones.
“I lied to her,” the witness said on Friday.
The athlete said he came clean to his mother about a year later.
But Gabrielle Bashir SC, acting for the now-85-year-old radio titan, said the first statement to his mother was not a lie.
“You told her the truth then when you said nothing had happened,” Ms Bashir said on Friday.
“Alan Jones never kissed you indecently … (he) never indecently touched you.”
“Yes, he did,” the witness said.
Jones has pleaded not guilty to 22 counts of indecent assault and sexual touching without consent.
Nine of the indecent assault offences were allegedly committed in the mid-2000s against the young athlete, who testified this week to receiving financial payments from the man more than 40 years his senior.
Ms Bashir attacked unflattering evidence given about Jones, such as descriptions of his anatomy, casting it as merely an attempt by the witness to humiliate her client.
The man has testified that he and Jones had engaged in mutual masturbation and provided a description of the former Wallabies coach failing to get an erection.
“You wouldn’t know because you’ve never seen Mr Jones’s penis.” Ms Bashir posited to the athlete.
“Yes, I did,” the witness replied.
Six men – including the athlete – allege Jones kissed, groped, or subjected them to sexual misconduct between 2003 and 2020 at locations across Sydney and the NSW Southern Highlands.
Later, the athlete admitted to multiple instances where his evidence in court did not match what he told police about alleged incidents with Jones at the broadcaster’s estate south of Sydney.
In one instance, the athlete told police Jones pulled his underpants all the way down to his ankles in the younger man’s bedroom, but he later admitted they were only a quarter of the way down his legs.
He further conceded he could not recall Jones telling him “I love you” before kissing him near the Fitzroy Falls farm’s pigsty, as he had told police.
“Are you making up your evidence as you’re going along?” Ms Bashir later asked.
“Absolutely not,” the athlete said.
He also told the court while Jones did not explicitly threaten him with cutting off financial payments for not following through on sexually charged requests, he feared the influence of the powerful broadcaster.
Jones allegedly told the man to come back from a shower wearing nothing but a robe, but the man did not fully comply.
“I thought there would be repercussions … I didn’t like when he was disappointed in me, I felt quite disappointed in myself,” the athlete said.
Ms Bashir repeatedly questioned the man on whether he fabricated accounts of Jones’s abuse based on media reports of the allegations against him.
The fact the young man never tried to escape the property and even played tennis with Jones after multiple incidents of alleged assault also indicated the story was false, Ms Bashir said.
The answers given under cross-examination can now be reported after Judge Glenn Walsh lifted a suppression order that prevented their publication until late Thursday afternoon.
The witness is expected to conclude their evidence when the hearing resumes on Tuesday.
1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)
National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service 1800 211 028
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