Talkback giant Ray Hadley unleashed a profanity-laden verbal attack on fellow broadcaster Alan Jones after being informed his rival was behind a false accusation of assault.
Jones, 85, is standing trial after pleading not guilty to 22 counts of indecent assault and sexual touching without consent against six men between 2003 and 2020.
One complainant is a former radio staffer who claims he was repeatedly non-consensually kissed and groped by the longtime shock jock over five months when they worked together.
He confided years later in 2GB mornings host Hadley, who returned to the witness box in the NSW Local Court for a second day on Tuesday.
But the cross-examination veered sharply away from the indecent assault complaint and focused instead on the fractured relationship between Hadley and Jones, his stablemate and rival.
Hadley said he was informed he had been accused of assaulting a co-worker in their workplace corridor.
However, he told the court that CCTV footage made it clear Hadley had not been anywhere close to his accuser.
He rejected the suggestion he had assumed Jones was involved in the allegation, telling the court it had been laid out for him by a "double agent" colleague.
“(He) assured me Jones had marshalled the troops and said, ‘dig up some dirt on Hadley’,” Hadley insisted.
He agreed he told police he later stormed into Jones’s office and called him a “dog and a c***”, which he characterised as "advice" about his rival’s work.
The expletive-laden confrontation came after Hadley’s bid to host the breakfast show was thwarted by executives.
He told the court he signed a “secret contract” worth $4 million to take over the role from Jones, whose contract was coming to an end.
While the prospect of getting up at 1.30am every morning was not attractive, Hadley said the offer to double his salary had swayed him.
“I didn’t pursue it - they came to me,” Hadley told the court.
“The money made me do it.”
Only a few executives knew about the contract, which was ultimately torn up when the chairman of Nine - which owns 2GB - insisted Jones be brought back as the breakfast host, he said.
“They said, ‘if you don’t stand down, you’re going to cost (major stakeholder John Singleton) $80 million’ ... so I said I’d stand down,” Hadley said.
The contentious relationship between the veteran broadcaster and Jones has been laid bare as Jones’s legal team mount an argument that rivalry is at the heart of the case against him.
Jones's barrister Gabrielle Bashir SC suggested Hadley wanted to destroy his rival Jones and he encouraged the radio staffer to make a complaint to that end.
The radio staffer has strongly denied suggestions that he fabricated the indecent assault claims or came forward to benefit Hadley, insisting he didn’t view him and Jones as rivals.
Jones has denied all of the charges, which are alleged to have occurred during the latter part of his 35-year broadcasting career, when he dominated Sydney’s airwaves and won the breakfast slot a record 226 times.
The once-powerful, commanding voice in the court of public opinion also broadcast to a national audience for years as a regular commentator on Nine’s Today show and a host of a political discussion show on Sky News.
1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)
National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service 1800 211 028
