Veteran Australian broadcaster and former Wallabies coach Alan Jones has been charged with sexually assaulting seven men and a 17-year-old boy.
The 83-year-old man was taken into custody at his Sydney apartment early Monday morning, as detectives from the New South Wales (NSW) Police Child Abuse Squad searched the harbor front property and seized electronic equipment.
Mr Jones is one of the most influential people in Australia media figures, and has denied allegations of abuse, which were first published by the Sydney Morning Herald in 2023.
He now faces 24 charges for alleged incidents between 2001 and 2019, including 11 counts of aggravated assault.
All charges, except two for common assault, are sex offenses.
Police say some of the alleged victims know the radio titan personally, and that at least one was employed by him.
Others were said to have been beaten when they met him for the first time, Michael Fitzgerald of the NSW Police told the media.
“I wish to commend the victims and their courage to come forward. [They] now they have the power to have a voice. This is what they have been asking for,” he said.
Commissioner Karen Webb previously said police had carried out an “extremely difficult”, “long-term” and “intense” investigation, and she expected more alleged victims would now come forward.
“There is no such thing as a matter that is too old to be investigated,” he said in a press conference.
“You will be listened to, we will take your issue to the top.”
Mr Jones was granted conditional bail, and will face court on December 18.
A former teacher, Mr Jones coached Australia’s national rugby union team between 1984 and 1988, before moving into broadcasting.
He also, at one time, worked as a speechwriter and political consultant for the Liberal Party – including former Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser – and launched several failed bids to represent the party in both state and federal politics.
A mainstay of Sydney’s airwaves on local station 2GB for decades, Mr Jones combined those jobs with TV commentary gigs before retiring from full-time work in 2020 citing health issues.
This broadcaster is a divisive figure, for many years boasting one of the nation’s audiences but often causing controversy.
He made headlines in 2012 for suggesting that the father of then-Prime Minister Julia Gillard “died of shame”, and in 2019 he faced a major advertiser boycott after someone “threw a sock” down the throat of then-New Zealand leader Jacinda Ardern.
Mr Jones has also been successfully sued for defamation on a number of occasions.
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