An alleged victim has defended his testimony saying changing details were not proof of lying.
The athlete, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, is facing his fifth day of questioning at the end of the first week of a marathon court hearing.
Australian conservative radio commentator Alan Jones, 85, pleaded not guilty to 22 counts of indecent assault and sexual touching without consent.
Six men—including the athlete—allege Jones kissed, groped, or subjected them to sexual misconduct between 2003 and 2020 at locations across Sydney and the New South Wales (NSW) Southern Highlands.
The former athlete has accused Jones of indecently assaulting him on nine occasions with unwanted kisses and groping incidents as a teenager.
Under sustained cross-examination from Jones’s barrister, Gabrielle Bashir SC, the athlete admitted to multiple instances where his evidence in court did not match what he told police about alleged incidents with Jones at the broadcaster’s estate south of Sydney.
In one instance, the athlete told police Jones pulled his underpants all the way down to his ankles in the younger man’s bedroom, but he later claimed they were only a quarter of the way down.
He further conceded he could not recall Jones telling him, “I love you,” before kissing him near the Fitzroy Falls farm’s pigsty, as he had told police.
“You’re giving different accounts because this is a fabricated allegation against Mr. Jones,” Bashir suggested to the athlete.
The man replied, “It’s not true.”
“Are you making up your evidence as you’re going along?” Bashir later asked.
“Absolutely not,” the athlete said.
The young man said the experience in his bedroom, where he alleged Jones grabbed his genitals on the bed, was the most fearful he had ever been.
He also told the court while Jones did not explicitly threaten him with cutting off financial payments for not following through on sexually charged requests, he feared the influence of the powerful broadcaster.
Jones allegedly told the man to come back from a shower wearing nothing but a robe, but the man did not fully comply.
“Very fearfully I put on the robe, but as a form of protection for myself I put on the undies,” the athlete said.
“I thought there would be repercussions … I didn’t like when he was disappointed in me, I felt quite disappointed in myself.”
Ms Bashir repeatedly questioned the man on whether he fabricated accounts of Jones’s abuse based on media reports of the allegations against him.
“This story of Alan Jones telling you to put on a robe, that’s been based on allegations you heard on news reports,” the barrister asked.
“No, it’s based on what he said on the night,” the athlete said.
The fact the young man never tried to escape the property and even played tennis with Jones after multiple incidents of alleged assault indicated the story was false, Bashir said.
“Instead of [seeking help], you had a long look around the farm and had a hit on the tennis court … Alan Jones joined you on the court,” Bashir said.
“He was very good,” the athlete said.
Jones has been charged with nine indecent assault offences against the witness, all of which he denies.
The answers given under cross-examination can now be reported after Judge Glenn Walsh lifted a suppression order that prevented their publication until late Thursday afternoon.
By Tom Wark in Sydney.
