A former radio station staffer has broken down in tears while insisting he never wanted Alan Jones to kiss him, telling a court he felt violated and scared.
He is one of six men who allege veteran broadcaster Jones kissed, groped or subjected them to sexual misconduct between 2003 and 2020 across Sydney and the NSW Southern Highlands.
The 85-year-old has pleaded not guilty to 22 charges of indecent assault and sexual touching without consent.
Eight charges relate to a former radio station employee, who was the second complainant to enter the witness box amid Jones’s marathon hearing in the NSW Local Court.
He dissolved into tears as he described how Jones had cornered him in the lift of his Circular Quay apartment and kissed him, despite him dropping his head in an effort to avoid it.
“I moved my head, saying ‘no no no’,” the man said, his voice breaking.
“I didn’t want him to kiss me.”
He told the court it was the first of three uninvited kisses in the lift, including one in which Jones held his face in an intimate way and kissed him as though they were in a movie.
“I felt trapped,” the former radio station employee said.
“We were in a lift, a really confined space.”
When asked why he didn’t tell the former Wallabies coach to stop, the former radio employee explained he did not think he had that option.
“The power dynamic was extraordinary,” he told the court.
“I couldn’t say no.”
He didn’t disclose the alleged non-consensual kisses to anyone, telling the court he had been worried and embarrassed.
The incidents came after the veteran broadcaster began calling him “darling” and flirting with him, his former colleague said.
He said Jones’s text messages – which he demanded the younger man delete – became explicit and he felt like he was being bombarded with “love bombing”.
Although the former radio station staffer avoided any sexual responses, he felt he had to reply to assuage the former teacher, saying he didn’t even know what would happen if he hadn’t.
“It would not have been pleasant,” he said.
“I know what it’s like to cop his wrath, to be yelled at, ostracised.”
Jones allegedly escalated the behaviour by groping the former radio staffer while he drove, leaving the younger man feeling very uncomfortable.
He said he swatted the hand away but that didn’t stop Jones from trying again at a later date, moving his hand to touch the former radio staffer’s groin.
The younger man told a court he froze and felt violated by the uninvited advance, emphasising he had not given consent.
“I was scared,” the former radio station staffer said.
“If I told him to stop, I don’t know what would have happened. You had to cop it.”
He told the court he had been a longtime fan of Jones and talkback radio before they first met at an event.
“I was starstruck,” the former radio staffer said.
He had aspired to work in radio for his whole life and was delighted, at age 18, to land a role at a radio station where Jones dominated the airwaves.
“It was a dream to work at that radio station and to be able to say I worked with Alan Jones,” the former radio station staffer said.
“It was about as good as it gets.”
Jones has denied all of the allegations against him, which are said to have occurred during the latter part of his 35-year broadcasting career, when he had a stranglehold of Sydney’s airwaves.
1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)
National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service 1800 211 028
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