The mother of one of Alan Jones’s alleged victims has told the court she apologised to her son for not protecting him after he disclosed the broadcaster had sexually touched him when he was a teenager.
The single mother of four said she was “in shock” when her son, an outstanding schoolboy athlete, admitted that he had initially lied when she asked him if Jones had touched him.
The mother was the final witness for complainant J, whose evidence has taken up almost two weeks of the trial of Jones, who has pleaded not guilty to 20 charges of indecent assault and two of sexual touching against six complainants.
She said after allegations about the former 2GB broadcaster were published in the Sydney Morning Herald in late 2023, she asked him: “Did Alan Jones ever touch you or do anything to you?” J said he had not.
But after Jones was arrested a year later, her son, now in his early 40s, told her that he had reported to police that Jones had allegedly touched him.
“And then a year later, [he] told me that he did touch him and stuff, and I just said, I’m sorry that happened,” she told the court. “I should have protected you.”
Earlier, J’s coach in high school told the court that the young athlete was so promising that he was once the best 16-year-old in his event in the world.
The coach said he had never seen Jones do anything inappropriate to J and he believed the media titan wanted to support J’s athletics career.
Before lunch the prosecutor accused the defence team of “intimidating” a witness, J’s former girlfriend, after Gabrielle Bashir SC put to her that she was financially motivated to support the complainant’s allegations.
Under cross-examination the ex-girlfriend maintained she had a conversation with J more than 20 years ago in which he alleged Jones touched him.
Bashir repeatedly suggested the conversation had never happened.
“No, I remember that clearly,” she said.
Last week J told the court he disclosed allegations Jones had touched him to his former high school girlfriend, whom he met in the mid-2000s when she was 16.
Sign up for the Breaking News Australia emailBashir suggested the ex-girlfriend had a financial motive to fabricate that J had made the disclosure when they were teens.
But the witness denied the evidence was fabricated or that there was a financial motive, saying J “wanted to come out and tell his truth”.
“It never crossed my mind and I know he didn’t mean that either, we’ve never spoken about it,” she said of a text message in which J promised to “look after her” .
Bashir later produced a $1,200 fine the ex-girlfriend had received two years ago, which prosecutor Georgina Wright objected to as “intimidating” and an attempt to “besmirch” the witness.
“The witness has denied financial issues,” Wright said, before adding a $1,200 fine wouldn’t contest that.
Judge Glenn Walsh allowed the questioning saying it didn’t amount to intimidation. He said the questioning flowed into the theory put forward by Jones’s team that there was a financial motive for J and his ex-girlfriend to fabricate the evidence, therefore it was relevant.
“The air should be cleared between parties in my view, for we are going to be together it seems to me for a number of months,” Walsh said.
Asked by Bashir about the fine, the witness agreed the sum was significant to her at the time. She also agreed it required her to attend a 12-month program which had a “financial consequence” attached to it.
“You had also been working on maintaining your sobriety?” Bashir asked.
“Yes,” the witness responded.
“I suggest at the time financial help would have been very welcome,” Bashir said.
“No, I didn’t need financial help.”
Walsh has allowed the prosecution to expand the dates of some of the alleged offending against J, after apparent inconsistencies in the evidence about the timeline given by witnesses. The crown had originally alleged that Jones kissed him and touched him on a trip to Fitzroy Falls some time in 2004. However, the crown now says the incidents may have happened anytime between January 2004 and April 2006, meaning J may have been between 18 and 21 years old.
The trial before Walsh continues with a new complainant, C, on Friday morning.
• The headline of this article was amended on 13 August 2026. An earlier version incorrectly referred to the prosecution as the defence.
