Leading Australian Radio Host Charged with Sexually Abusing 8 People

A veteran radio host and former rugby coach has been charged with sexually abusing eight men over two decades in Australia. 

Alan Jones, 83, was arrested and charged with 24 offenses of alleged indecent assault and sexual touching of seven men and a 17-year-old boy at his Sydney apartment on Monday, Nov. 18, New South Wales Police announced in a news release. 

While police did not name Jones, he was later identified by Australian media.

“In March 2024, State Crime Command’s Child Abuse Squad established Strike Force Bonnefin to investigate a number of alleged indecent assaults and sexual touching incidents between 2001 and 2019,” the NSWP stated, per the release.

“Following extensive inquiries, about 7:45 a.m. today (Monday, Nov. 18), strike force detectives executed a search warrant at a unit in Circular Quay where they arrested an 83-year-old man.”

Jones was taken to Day Street Police Station where he was charged with 11 counts of aggravated indecent assault with a victim under the authority of the offender, nine counts of assault with act of indecency, two counts of sexually touching another person without consent and two counts of common assault.

The former radio host knew the alleged victims either personally or professionally with some of the alleged offenses taking place after he met them for the first time, per the BBC.

On Monday, Jones was seen heading to Day Street Police station by police car. He remerged in the afternoon flanked by lawyers after being granted conditional bail prohibiting him from traveling and contacting his alleged victims, according to The Sydney Morning Herald.

Jones has denied the assault allegations. “Nothing has been tested. Nothing has been proven. Alan Jones will assert his innocence appropriately in the courtroom,” his lawyer Chris Murphy said, per the Australian newspaper.

Jones will appear before Downing Centre Local Court on Wednesday, Dec. 18. 

Jones is a household name in Australian broadcasting, having worked at 2GB for decades and in TV commentary. He was also a coach for the Wallabies and Barbarians rugby teams and worked as a speechwriter and advisor for the Liberal Party.

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He retired in 2020 citing health issues, per the BBC.

Jones' arrest comes after his alleged abuse was first detailed in an investigation led by the Sydney Morning Herald and Melbourne news outlet The Age, which began in December 2023. 

The outlets reported the stories of several men who accused Jones of sexually abusing them, including a former employee at Sydney news radio station 2GB, who claimed Jones indecently assaulted him repeatedly, a restaurant waiter who accused Jones of groping him in 2008 when he was 22 and multiple members of the arts community.

Late tech entrepreneur Alex Hartman, who died in 2019, also accused Jones of indecently assaulting him as a teenager. 

The sexual abuse allegations date as far back as 1965 when Jones was a 23-year-old teacher at Brisbane Grammar School where he was alleged to have groped a student, per the Sydney Morning Herald.