Markets 
Everything came creeping. The professional relationship that broke into friendship on the long drive to Fitzroy Falls, the slide of its expression from formal handwritten letters to text message banter, the early days of eviscerating dress-downs that were somehow replaced by terms of endearment and declarations of love.
A hand placed on a knee.
That came creeping too, according to Alan Jones’s former driver, known as Complainant C in the former broadcaster’s trial over charges of sexual touching. It did not slide up that first time, when the complainant said he gently brushed Jones’s hand away, as they drove from Jones’ office to his apartment on Macquarie Street.
But on subsequent drives along the same route, Jones’ hand allegedly lingered longer and climbed up to “C”’s inner groin, he said, before one day brushing across his penis, then rubbing it through his pants.
Three years earlier, “C” had been delighted to meet Jones when they sat near each other at an event. “C” overheard Jones asking after a football score, and he was able to deliver it. “I grew up listening to him, my parents listened to him, so when I told Dad that I met Alan, that I spoke to him, it was a pretty big deal for us.”
He became Jones’ driver and ran errands that included making him two soft-boiled eggs with soldiers for his breakfast, served on a tray with a white napkin, and ironing his handkerchiefs and underpants. The more important items, such as shirts, were left to Jones’ butler.
Jones was then the king of radio, and “C” knew where he stood in the realm. Sometimes Jones would tear strips off him, he said. He learnt what it was like to be belittled and ostracised. And then he found out what it was like to come into favour.
Routines established themselves until “C” said he was “desensitised” to what was happening, and then something would happen that would leave him feeling freshly violated. Such as the day that the lift doors closed behind them and Jones allegedly moved in to give him a kiss.
“I said, ‘No no no no no no no’,” the complainant said, tucking his chin and ducking his head and shaking it from side to side in a re-enactment of what he said occurred. He began to redden.
Crown barrister Georgina Wright, SC, asked: “Why did you move your head side to side?”
“C”’s voice grew thick, and began to catch. “I didn’t want him to kiss me.”
Jones wore a rust-hued jacket and beige trousers to the eighth day of his trial, with matching rust and beige-striped socks. When “C”’s voice began to sound strangled, he turned to look at his former driver for a few moments, then lifted his chin. He denies all the allegations against him. He says they never happened.
“C” told the court that soon Jones was kissing him almost every time they were alone in a lift together. “C” would enter the lift first, carrying Jones’ briefcase in one hand and his jacket in the other. Jones would enter afterwards and move in with his mouth when the doors closed. “C” said he never returned the kiss.
“I hated it. You knew what was going to happen, you knew what was coming, you felt trapped, you were in a lift.”
On one occasion, the lift slowed down at level one, “C” said. Jones allegedly stopped kissing him and turned to face outwards before the doors opened to let people into the lift.
The ultimate humiliation occurred at a lunch on the lower north shore, where Jones allegedly asked “C” to sit beside him and then held his hand over “C”’s penis the entire lunch except when he needed to eat. It was the first time Jones had touched him in front of other people, “C” said, and he could see the two men opposite “sniggering”. Afterwards, one of them asked if he had “copped a feel under the table”.
“I don’t recall what I said because I was just really, really, really embarrassed.”
But for all the creeping, the end, when it came, was abrupt. “C” took another job in mid-2009 and their interactions afterwards, he said, were “minimal”.
“It all sort of just stopped.”
Support is available from the National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732) or the Men’s Referral Service on 1300 766 491.
Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.
From our partners
Read the full article here
