Alleged victim says Alan Jones groped him at lunch and describes fear of being seen as broadcaster’s ‘toy’, court hears

A young driver for Alan Jones felt “violated” and “trapped” when the broadcaster allegedly touched him on the penis in the car and kissed him in a lift, but didn’t complain due to the “extraordinary” power dynamic between the pair, a Sydney court has been told.

Complainant C, now aged in his 40s, on Friday told Jones’s indecent assault trial that interactions between the pair escalated over time.

C, who was 18 when he started working at 2GB in the mid-2000s, told Downing Centre local court the unwanted touching began a few years later, in the car and a lift at the radio host’s harbourside apartment.

Jones has pleaded not guilty to 20 charges of indecent assault and two counts of sexual touching against six complainants.

C said he aspired to be a producer but was required to make the 2GB host’s breakfast of soft-boiled eggs with bread soldiers, clean his bathroom at the radio station and iron underpants.

He was “star-struck” when the broadcaster offered to pay him $40,000 a year to be his driver, C told the court.

“Alan had a kitchen in his office and I had to make soft-boiled eggs and Burgen bread … and cut it into soldiers,” C said. “I took it in on a tray and had a cloth napkin on my arm.”

C said he had to loiter around the studio waiting for an opportunity to go in because if he left the empty tray too long he was berated by the broadcaster.

“It was pretty aggressive; ‘get this out of here’ sort of thing,” C said when questioned by prosecutor Georgina Wright.

Complainant C, the second alleged victim to give evidence at the trial, told the court he grew up listening to talkback radio and all he ever wanted to do was work at a radio station. But, C said, he did not want to be a chauffeur or a butler.

After the show ended each day, he drove Jones home, the court was told. C wanted to go back and work at the radio station but was often required to complete household tasks under the direction of Jones’s butler.

He said he was given the smaller items to iron, including handkerchiefs and underpants. “If I stuffed it up it wouldn’t have been the end of the world,” C said.

He was given a foot in the door by fellow shockjock Ray Hadley, who paid him for three months out of his own pocket before he secured full-time employment.

Complainant C didn’t sign a contract because Jones told him contracts tended to “intimidate young people”, he told the court.

“I just wanted to work in radio,” C said. “It was a dream to work at that radio station, and to be able to say I worked with Alan Jones was as good as it gets for a young kid who wants to work in radio.”

Complainant C said the first time the broadcaster touched his penis while he was driving him home, C felt Jones’s hand go from his knee, up to his left leg and over his penis on the outside of his pants.

The former driver said he froze and when Jones got out of the car he felt “violated”.

“I never had a man touch me on the penis before,” C told the court on Friday. “I’m not gay.”

C said he didn’t report the touching at the time because he was scared. Similar incidents occurred for weeks before Jones tried to kiss him, the complainant said.

The first time Jones allegedly kissed him, C had parked Jones’s car underneath his apartment building and was carrying the broadcaster’s jacket in his left hand, and his briefcase in his right.

The two entered the lift, and C walked to the back as Jones came towards him, the court heard.

Jones’s face encroached on C’s, but with his hands full, the driver could only drop his head, putting his chin to his neck in an attempt to avoid his employer, the witness said.

C reenacted the motion in court, shaking his head and saying “no, no, no, no” repeatedly.

“I didn’t want him to kiss me,” C said on Friday before crying.

Jones allegedly did the same on two more occasions, putting his hand on C’s face in a “romantic” way before kissing him on the lips.

“I didn’t kiss him back,” C told the court. “A kiss is two people kissing each other, and I never leant forward. I closed my mouth as tight as possible and just dealt with it.”

C said he would try to drop Jones off in front of his apartment so he could avoid the elevator.

“If I was lucky, he’d get out, if I wasn’t, he’d point to the underground car park,” the complainant said.

In the lift, with his hands full, C said: “I felt trapped.”

“The power dynamic was extraordinary,” C told the court. “This bloke was my boss, he owned the radio station, I couldn’t say no.”