Jones accuser told Ray Hadley, Peter FitzSimons about alleged assaults

A former Alan Jones staffer has told a court he confided in friends that the former broadcaster was “a grub” who had touched him inappropriately before he spoke to prominent media identities Ray Hadley and Peter FitzSimons.

Complainant “C”, the second of six men to give evidence in Jones’ indecent assault and sexual touching trial, told the NSW Local Court in Sydney on Monday that he “broke down sobbing” when he told Hadley about the alleged incidents of unwanted kissing and touching.

“C” said he had revealed the alleged assaults to then-2GB host Hadley after learning FitzSimons, an author, journalist and Sydney Morning Herald columnist, was researching a story on similar allegations against Jones.

“I said, ‘You know we joke a bit about it, but you know some of the stuff [Jones] did to me was quite f---ed up’,” he told the court.

He agreed to speak to FitzSimons, “C” said, but not to tell his own account publicly.

“The purpose of my conversation with Peter was to just let him know it’s true … [or] at the very least it happened to me,” he said.

He broke down when Hadley asked if he was OK after he spoke FitzSimons, he said.

“I said, ‘He’s a f---ing grub, he used to grab me on my c---, used to kiss me in the lift’,” he said.

“Ray just listened. I just broke down sobbing. I said, ‘He’s a f--ing c---’.”

The man said he thought about his family, and it had hit home that he had never spoken about his experience in detail other than in an “off the cuff conversation”.

“It was the first time I’d ever broken down talking about it, and Ray just listened,” he said.

“He offered to go with me to the police and I said, ‘No, I don’t want to do anything like that’.”

“C” said Hadley agreed not to tell anyone else and suggested he speak to a psychologist.

The complainant said the Herald ’s chief investigative reporter, Kate McClymont, subsequently emailed him, and they met at a later date. Ultimately, he agreed she could report on his allegations by giving him a pseudonym, he told the court.