Journalist Peter FitzSimons begins giving evidence in Alan Jones case in Australia
In Australia, writer and journalist Peter FitzSimons has begun giving evidence in the criminal trial of radio host Alan Jones. He told the court that Jones’s younger colleague, identified in the case as complainant C, was deeply distressed when recounting an alleged indecent assault. ABC News reports.
Evidence about a 2019 conversation
Jones has pleaded not guilty to 22 charges of indecent assault and sexual touching involving six men. They include a younger colleague, complainant C, who alleges that the influential host repeatedly kissed and touched him.
FitzSimons said that in October 2019 he contacted complainant C after 2GB radio host Ray Hadley told him that the younger colleague wanted to speak about his experience with Jones. According to the journalist, the man said Jones touched or held his penis while they were in a car, and also kissed him in an elevator on the way to an apartment in the Circular Quay area.
Notes passed to an investigative journalist
According to FitzSimons’s evidence, complainant C described Jones as the most important and influential person at 2GB and said he was attracted by the host’s attention. The man, FitzSimons said, was outraged by what had happened but was also upset that he had not acted more decisively. He also said that he did not tell Jones “no,” but pushed his hand away.
More current news is available on the UA.News Telegram channel Telegram.
FitzSimons passed notes from the telephone conversation to his colleague, investigative journalist Kate McClymont, because he considered the information extremely important. Four days later, he said, Hadley told him that complainant C was deeply distressed, panicking and experiencing an emotional breakdown. FitzSimons made it clear that neither he nor McClymont would continue working on the story at that time.
Defence position
During cross-examination, Jones’s lawyer Gabrielle Bashir asked FitzSimons whether Hadley had offered himself as a source of information against Jones and whether he had mentioned two other young men. FitzSimons agreed that the names of two people had come up in the conversation, but clarified that he remembered allegations of sexual interaction in relation to only one of them.
Jones’s defence argues that FitzSimons and Hadley allegedly acted together, involving complainant C, in order to destroy Jones. The proceedings are continuing.
