An Australian sporting identity declined to give a statement to police when approached by detectives investigating Alan Jones, a court has been told.
Mr Jones, 85, is scheduled to front a Sydney court in less than two weeks for the start of a blockbuster trial having pleaded not guilty to a string of sexual touching and indecent assault allegations relating to six complainants.
Prosecutors last month dropped four charges meaning Mr Jones will battle 20 counts of indecent assault and two counts of sexual touching in the judge-alone trial before Judge Glenn Walsh.
Earlier this month, the prosecution made an application to be allowed to call evidence from the sportsman and another witness, who had refused to provide a statement to police, the court was told during pre-trial arguments.
Camera IconAlan Jones will fight the allegations at trial next month. NewsWire / Nikki Short Credit: News Corp Australia
Judge Walsh ultimately denied the motion and a non-publication order was placed over the legal argument. That order was then lifted on Wednesday.
Earlier this month, the court was told the man did not make a statement to police, but his lawyers sent detectives an email about his knowledge of interactions between one of the complainants and Mr Jones, as well as what the man had told him about the former talkback host.
Prosecutor Georgina Wright argued before the court the man might be able to give evidence relevant to one complainant’s allegations.
The court was told during pre-trial hearings earlier this month the sportsman said, through his solicitor, that he saw the complainant and Mr Jones at an event and did not recall any “awkwardness” between them.
He had also seen Mr Jones and the complainant at the former broadcaster’s Fitzroy Falls farm on another occasion.
The man also said when Mr Jones was charged, that complainant phoned him and told him that the broadcaster had “done something to him, possibly kissed him”, the court was told.
Judge Walsh ultimately denied the prosecution’s application to call the athlete and another witness who had both refused or declined to give statements to police.
He said that to do so would have prejudiced Mr Jones’ right to a fair trial and that he was entitled to know the case he must meet before the hearing.
Camera IconAlan Jones has said he will fight the charges at trial. NewsWire/Nikki Short. Credit: News Corp Australia
“I form the view that to accede to any of the orders sought, to allow the calling of the two witnesses, would result in this court being involved in the investigative process,” Judge Walsh said in a judgment handed down earlier this month.
Separately, Judge Walsh also allowed the Crown prosecution to call “tendency and coincidence” evidence during the upcoming trial.
The court was told that the Crown prosecution argued that some of the allegations had similar hallmarks and features.
The Crown argued that Mr Jones had an alleged tendency to have a sexual interest in younger men and to sexually touch them, on the thighs, genital area and buttocks, in professional and social settings.
Mr Jones has denied all the allegations against him and in December 2024 said outside court: “I have never indecently assaulted these people. The law assumes I am not guilty, and I am not guilty.”
Prosecutors also argued that none of the complainants had any contact prior to making the allegations to police, the court was told.
Mr Jones’ defence argued, during the pre-trial hearing, that the tendency and coincidence evidence should not be admitted because the notice was “deficient”, did not have “significant prohibitive value” to the case and risked a miscarriage of justice.
Judge Walsh found that any “dissimilarity” between the allegations, which will be tested during the trial, “does not detract from the strength of the similarities to a sufficient level to deprive them of probative value”.
The matter will return to court on Friday and the trial is scheduled to commence on August 3 at Sydney’s Downing Centre Local Court.
