UPDATE: Alan Jones “More Powerful Than The PM” Arrested And Hit With 24 Charges Following Alleged Assaults Of Young Men
UPDATE: According to Sky News Australia, NSW Police have charged Alan Jones with 24 offences including historical indecent assault and sexual harassment. The 83-year-old broadcaster received these charges at Day Street Police Station, Sydney.
The former radio reporter received bail conditions and must appear at Downing Centre Local Court on December 18.
NSW Police arrested Alan Jones, 83, at his Circular Quay residence on Monday morning at 7:45am. The former radio broadcaster and Wallabies coach allegedly “indecently assaulted, groped or inappropriately touched multiple young men,” without consent over several decades, reports Kate McClymont The Sydney Morning Herald.
BREAKING: Alan Jones has been arrested by NSW Police. 👇
— 2GB Sydney (@2GB873) November 17, 2024
DETAILS: https://t.co/nWogB2vpXz pic.twitter.com/TrUt6vY3kJ
Strike Force Bonnefin, part of the NSW Crime Command’s child abuse squad, led the investigation. Police searched Jones’ home, and he was taken to Day Street police station in central Sydney.
Decades of Alleged Misconduct
The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age began investigating allegations against Jones in December 2023. Their story showed allegations going back to 1965 when Jones worked as a teacher.
At Brisbane Grammar in 1965, Jones, then 23, allegedly touched a student during cricket practice. The Sydney Morning Herald story says he is alleged to have put his hands down the pants of a student and squeezed his testicles. The student said Jones held his testicles for “maybe 30 seconds to a minute”.
Similar claims came from The King’s School in Parramatta.
Jones is also alleged to have indecently assaulted young men while working at radio station 2GB. One former 2GB employee has alleged he was repeatedly indecently assaulted by Jones.
Brad Webster (not his real name) told the Herald and The Age last year: “If I went to the police, Jones could be charged. What he did to me was a criminal offence. He cannot die without people knowing what he’s done.”
The Sydney Morning Herald reports that Webster was “hired at the age of 20 to do menial jobs including driving the radio star from the station’s Pyrmont studios to his apartment in the Circular Quay building”. Jones was 65 at the time.
“During those 10 minutes, it would be wandering hands, and then it just gradually became him grabbing my dick… you’re driving, you’re absolutely trapped… he’d go the grope, he’d rub my penis,” Webster told The Sydney Morning Herald.
Jones is also alleged to have kissed him in the lift and exposed himself in the apartment.
A producer at 2GB told The Sydney Morning Herald that Jones’ petting and pawing of young men was “uninvited”, “predatory”, “brazen” and “absolutely confronting”.
Many stayed quiet because of Jones’ connections. “Jones was more powerful than the prime minister,” Webster said. Jones had direct access to then-Prime Minister John Howard and often contacted police commissioners about their work and criticised them for being “soft on crime”.
