Ex-2GB star tells court he feels ‘terribly’ for Alan Jones accuser

Former 2GB broadcaster Jason Morrison has told a court he would have confronted Alan Jones if he had seen him touch a young man under the table at a lunch in Sydney, and he feels “terribly” for the alleged victim.

Morrison, now chief of staff at The Daily Telegraph , was grilled at length on Friday in Jones’ indecent assault and sexual touching trial and denied omitting evidence about what he had seen and heard at the lunch almost 20 years ago.

A man known as complainant “C” has told the Downing Centre Local Court that Jones put his hand under the table at the lunch and touched him on the penis over his clothing. Jones, 85, has denied the allegations.

Morrison, who was working alongside Jones at the time at 2GB, has told the court there were jokes at the lunch about Jones and “C” looking like a “great couple” because the broadcaster put his arm across the complainant’s shoulders while talking about him.

The lunch was attended by guests from Jones’ professional and personal life, the court has heard, and they did not all know each other.

Morrison rejected suggestions by prosecutor Georgina Wright, SC, that he had given a deliberately “harmless” account of the jokes that was “far-fetched and implausible”.

“I feel, in these proceedings, very sorry that [‘C’ is] going through all of this, but I’m here to give evidence about whether I saw it or heard about it, and I didn’t,” Morrison said of the alleged indecent assault.

Morrison said it was “a very difficult thing to be put in the middle” as a witness, and he did not take his obligation to give truthful evidence lightly.

“Do you fear blowback in your media career if you give evidence that might be perceived as harming the defendant’s defence?” Wright asked.

“I don’t fear blowback,” Morrison said. “Mr Jones is no longer in the industry; I haven’t worked with him for eons.”

Morrison said that if he had seen the alleged assault, “I would have said something to Alan.

“I wasn’t a backwards person. I would have done something about it. I didn’t know about it, and I didn’t see it, and so I couldn’t do anything about it.”

A report by The Sydney Morning Herald ’s chief investigative reporter Kate McClymont into allegations against Jones was published in late 2023, and Jones was arrested in November 2024.

Morrison was shown a text message he sent Jones after a further Herald article in May 2024, which referred to the allegations against Jones and to his attendance at a reunion of old boys from The King’s School. Jones had been a teacher and a sports coach at King’s in the 1970s.