Witness breaks down in tears, tells court ‘I was scared’ after son declined to report alleged kissing and touching by broadcaster
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The mother of the youngest alleged victim of Alan Jones has told a Sydney court she “trusted” the 2GB broadcaster and was “comfortable” her teenager was going to spend a weekend at his Fitzroy Falls property.
The young man, known as complainant A, has testified that when he was 17 he was alone at the southern highlands farm when Jones allegedly kissed him, put his tongue inside his mouth and touched him on the bottom. “I felt violated and I felt gross,” he told the court earlier.
Complainant A is one of five men who allege Jones, 85, sexually touched them between 2003 and 2020. All five have now completed their evidence as the trial enters its 11th week.
Jones has pleaded not guilty to 21 charges of indecent assault and sexual touching.
A’s mother gave her evidence-in-chief on Tuesday in the Downing Centre local court after her son had spent more than a week in the witness box interrupted by multiple legal arguments.
The divorced mother, who was facing financial ruin and mourning a death in the family, said she “absolutely trusted” Jones as she had read many emails from him in which he said what a wonderful young man her boy was.
“I was just so pleased to have an older mentor in [A’s] life that was interesting and interested in so many things … and saw my son was as intelligent as he is and engaging,” she said.
Jones, who had been corresponding with A since the then 13-year-old asked him for help with his mother’s “dire” financial problems, had never invited her to his home but had invited the teenager on multiple occasions, the court heard.
She said her son had meals with Jones at a local pub and at his Circular Quay apartment but she was never invited.
When her son returned from his two-night stay during the school holidays, the mother said she “knew straight away something was up” because “his mood was different” and he wasn’t sleeping.
“He told me had had broken a plate and he was remorseful about that,” she said. Complainant A earlier told the court Jones was “frustrated, annoyed and angry” when he dropped a $1,500 Versace plate.
Ten days after he returned from Fitzroy Falls her son handed her a “scrawly” note and said “I don’t want to talk about it”, she said as she broke down in tears in the witness box when handed a copy of the note by a court officer.
Her son earlier told the court he wrote a vague account in the note which said he “felt violated at Fitzroy Falls about an incident of a sexual nature”.
She said she read the note and asked her son if he wanted to report the alleged assault to the police. He declined, saying: “I wasn’t raped. It is probably not a big thing in the scheme of it. It will be my word against his and he is a powerful man.”
The witness said she told her son “not to have any contact” with Jones, but she continued to correspond with the broadcaster about issues he had been helping her with, including repairs on her house, which Jones paid for to the tune of $100,000.
Asked why she continued to correspond with Jones, the witness said: “I was scared because I had already asked [A] if he wanted to go to the police” and “nothing with the bank was finalised”.
She said she was afraid Jones could withdraw the assistance he had provided and “that was pretty frightening”.
The witness said she gave her first statement to police several years later, in May 2024.
In December 2025 she found the note and handed it to the detective who was investigating A’s case.
The trial continues.
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Source: www.theguardian.com
