Butler describes delivering weekly flowers to Alan Jones’ alleged victim

Alan Jones’ butler has described delivering weekly flowers to a former athlete who was allegedly indecently assaulted by the then-broadcaster, while denying seeing inappropriate behaviour.

David Allan, who worked as Jones’ butler for nearly two decades, gave evidence in the former 2GB titan’s indecent assault and sexual touching trial in the Local Court on Thursday.

Jones, 85, has pleaded not guilty to 21 charges relating to five men over 17 years from 2003 to 2020. He denies that any alleged physical acts occurred.

Allan’s domestic duties stemmed from Jones’ “extraordinarily brutal regime of work hours” as an early morning radio host. The court heard that Jones regularly only had 2.5 hours of sleep each night.

Allan would cook for the near-daily prominent guests, serving lunches that became dinners and weekend feasts when Jones was off-air. Between managing dietary needs and oyster preferences, he ironed Jones’ underwear and handkerchiefs.

The former butler would ask if Jones wanted “crust on or off” when “knock[ing] up a few sandwiches”.

“I’d do all the cleaning … polish the shoes and clean the loos and everything else you do in the household,” he said.

Among Jones’ “endless” guests in the sporting world was a man dubbed in the trial as complainant “M” , Allan told the court.

“M” alleged Jones kissed him non-consensually on the corner of his mouth at an event in Sydney about a decade ago, and repeatedly on the cheek, moving towards his mouth, years later at the broadcaster’s Circular Quay apartment.

Asked by Crown prosecutor Georgina Wright, SC, how Jones would greet “M” when he visited the 85-year-old’s harbourside apartment, Allan said it was “always the same as that all sports people seem to do”.

“It’s a hug, slap on the bottom, grab each other, ‘hello champion’, and sit down and chat away, and off they go,” he said.

“Well, it’s probably the wrong thing to say today. They slap each other; it’s what they do, sportsmen, [they] do it all the time. They score a try, they all get around, snuggle up and that, whatever they do.”

Wright clarified that she was only asking about “M”. The former butler replied that Jones would say, “hello champion” and he did not recall him saying anything else.

There is no suggestion of wrongdoing by Jones regarding Allan’s remarks.