‘That is a lie’: alleged Alan Jones victim denies family tried to get money out of broadcaster, court hears

An alleged teenage victim of Alan Jones has denied his family tried to deceive the broadcaster and get as much money out of him as they could during a tense cross-examination in a Sydney court.

Asked whether he was intent on getting as much financial assistance as he could from the former 2GB host, the witness replied: “That is a lie.”

The youngest complainant in the trial has told the court he was 17 when Jones allegedly put his tongue inside his mouth and touched him on the bottom during a visit to the shock jock’s property in the Southern Highlands.

Known as complainant A, the witness said he visited the Fitzroy Falls farm several years after he started corresponding with Jones at the age of 13.

He posted a letter to Jones asking for help after his father left, a family member died and his single mother was struggling financially.

Complainant A is one of five men who allege Jones indecently assaulted or sexually touched them between 2003 and 2020.

The host has pleaded not guilty to 21 charges of indecent assault and sexual touching.

Jones’s barrister, Gabrielle Bashir SC, has been cross-examining the young man for two days about the extent of his mother’s involvement in the hundreds of emails which were sent to Jones between 2013 and 2016.

The witness has accepted that his mother provided financial details and documents and made suggestions about what to write, but insisted the correspondence was largely his own work.

Bashir asked: “Were you trying to deceive Mr Jones about the author of the email when you sent emails just signed off from [A] that your mother had input into?”

Complainant A replied: “No.”

Bashir said: “I suggest that you were - what do you say to that?”

A replied: “That you’re wrong.”

Bashir took the witness to a particular email and asked the witness if he agreed that he wanted Jones’s assistance with his mother’s mortgage.

The complainant repeatedly refused to agree, saying “I am not going to be railroaded” and “I am not going to have my words twisted, Ms Bashir”.

Bashir asked: “You understood your mother had the intention of obtaining as much assistance from Mr Jones as she could?”

A replied: “That is a lie.”

The terse exchanges between Bashir and the witness elicited several objections from prosecutor Georgina Wright, who on Wednesday said: “I object to this, your Honour. This is annoying.”

After hours of detailed questions about whether the complainant wrote a specific email about a contract more than a decade ago, Judge Glenn Walsh intervened.

“He can’t approve a contract; he is 14 years of age,” Walsh said.

The court heard one email Jones sent to A when he was 16 years of age said he had provided in excess of $100,000, “the cost is out of hand” and needs to come to an end. “Enough is enough,” he said.

The teenager replied to Jones that he and his mother could start making repayments to reimburse him. Jones wrote he did not expect to be repaid.

The witness has given evidence that he did not consent to the kiss from Jones in 2017 and that he had pulled away, saying “Enough Alan. Good night.” He said Jones “had a grin on his face”.

The incident left him scared for the consequences of pushing Jones away, he said. “I needed to be grateful, and being defiant is not being grateful and making a scene is not being grateful.”

The trial continues under Judge Walsh.