Warning: Graphic content material
A former 2GB host has denied tailoring his proof to help Alan Jones after he informed a courtroom he didn’t see the then-broadcaster showing to the touch a younger man below the desk at a lunch in Sydney.
Jason Morrison returned to the witness field on Tuesday within the Downing Centre Native Courtroom after a authorized concern briefly halted his proof on Monday.
He mentioned he didn’t see Jones on the lunch about 20 years in the past together with his hand below the desk, seemingly within the lap of a person in his early 20s often known as complainant “C”. On the time, each Jones and Morrison labored at 2GB.
Jones, 85, is standing trial on 20 counts of indecent assault and two counts of sexual touching with out consent spanning a 17-year interval from 2003 to 2020. He denies the allegations.
The trial centres on the proof of six male complainants. “C” has informed the courtroom that Jones put his hand below the desk on the lunch and touched him on the penis over his clothes.
Prosecutor Georgina Wright, SC, put to Morrison on Tuesday that he did see Jones together with his hand below the desk, and that he reacted with “shock and amusement at what you noticed”.
“I’ve simply informed you I didn’t see it, so no, I didn’t,” Morrison mentioned.
Wright prompt he had additionally seen “C” trying uncomfortable.
“I wouldn’t say uncomfortable, no,” he replied.
The courtroom has heard the lunch was attended by friends from Jones’ skilled and private life, and they didn’t all know one another.
Morrison informed the courtroom on Monday that there was some joking amongst lunch friends about Jones and “C” as a result of the younger man was “caught” on the “least-fun” finish of the desk subsequent to the broadcaster.
Nonetheless, he mentioned that “C” had been smiling and there was “nothing [in his demeanour] that nervous me”.
Wright put to him that “the joking was in regards to the defendant showing to offer some romantic consideration to ‘C’, wasn’t it?”
“Properly, that was our joke,” Morrison mentioned. “There was a time through the lunch the place Alan put his arm over C’s shoulder … and we had been making enjoyable of the state of affairs.
“I definitely know I by no means for a second thought something that you simply’ve described to me occurred. It was not meant with any specific malice or ill-intent.”
Wright requested: “Are you suggesting that the joke was just because Alan put his arm round ‘C’?”
“Sure,” Morrison mentioned.
Morrison mentioned that “the joke was they regarded like a pair” however “I feel it’s an enormous step to say that we genuinely thought they had been one”. He described the jokes as banter.
Wright put to him that the joke was mentioned as a result of Jones put his hand below the desk within the lap of “C”.
“No. If I used to be conscious of that … I’d have raised it,” Morrison mentioned, referring to his “forthright method”. “I didn’t, as a result of I didn’t see that occur.”
He denied a suggestion by Wright that he was being “intentionally evasive” when answering questions in regards to the jokes.
“There was a common joke going that ‘C’ and Alan had coupled up, wasn’t there?” Wright mentioned.
“The joke was they regarded like they’d coupled up,” Morrison replied.
He agreed that it was important sufficient for him to inform police about it in a press release in 2024.
“You’ve tailor-made your proof about there being light-hearted banter to help the defendant, haven’t you?” Wright mentioned.
“That’s offensive,” Morrison replied. “I’m right here below oath. I discover that offensive.”
Wright pressed that “the jokes had been about Alan showing to offer romantic consideration to ‘C’.”
“Not romantic, that’s [a] very completely different connotation,” Morrison mentioned.
“Sexual?” she mentioned. “No,” the previous 2GB host mentioned.
Morrison mentioned he didn’t hear anybody say to “C” after the lunch: “You copped a really feel below the desk.”
The complainant has beforehand given proof that phrases to this impact had been mentioned to him after the lunch by one other visitor, leaving him “deeply embarrassed”.
Strike Pressure Bonnefin was shaped by NSW Police’s intercourse crimes squad following a significant investigation by this masthead’s chief investigative reporter, Kate McClymont, into allegations towards Jones. The broadcaster was arrested in November 2024.
Wright put to Morrison on Tuesday he had a “long-standing pejorative view of The Sydney Morning Herald”.
“I’ve had my experiences which have allowed me to kind that [view],” he mentioned.
Two different lunch friends have given proof within the trial. On Friday, one visitor mentioned that he had seen “C” sitting subsequent to Jones and that the younger man regarded “distraught”.
“That’s in all probability the most effective phrase … he regarded in shock, upset,” the witness mentioned.
One other visitor mentioned he didn’t see any inappropriate behaviour by Jones on the occasion.
Assist is on the market from the Nationwide Sexual Assault, Home Household Violence Counselling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732) or the Males’s Referral Service on 1300 766 491.
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