Alan Jones: One of Australia’s most influential media figures arrested over sexual abuse allegations

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Alan Jones, veteran Australian broadcaster and former coach of the national rugby union team, has been arrested over sexual assault allegations.

Detectives from the New South Wales Police Child Abuse Squad arrested Mr Jones, 83, at his Circular Quay home in Sydney early on Monday morning.

The arrest followed months of investigation by a strike force formed in March to investigate reports of indecent assault and sexual touching between 2001 and 2019, police confirmed in a statement.

Police spent almost three and a half hours searching his apartment, located 300 meters from the Sydney Opera House, after his arrest at about 7.45am.

Mr Jones was escorted through the car park of his complex to avoid the assembled media and then taken to Day Street police station in the back of an unmarked police vehicle at around 11am. He was accompanied at the station by his attorneys, Chris Murphy and Bryan Wrench.

Police say he has not yet been charged.

New South Wales Police Chief Karen Webb described the investigation as “very complex” and “lengthy”, and praised officers for their thorough work.

She urged other alleged victims to come forward and stressed that even historical cases were taken seriously. “There is no such thing as a case that is too old to be investigated,” she said. “You will be heard and we will take your case seriously.”

Mr Jones, a highly influential figure in the Australian media, is alleged to have used his position of power as a teacher and then as a top radio broadcaster to prey on a number of young men, according to reports in The Sydney Morning Herald And The era last year.

Mr Jones has consistently denied wrongdoing.

A former employee of 2GB, the radio station that hosted the former coach’s popular show from 2002 to 2020, accused Mr Jones of assault: “What he did to me was a criminal offence. He can’t die without people knowing what he did.’

The alleged victim was hired when he was 20 to do menial jobs for Mr. Jones, such as driving him from the station’s Pyrmont studios to his apartment.

“For those 10 minutes it was just wandering hands and then it slowly turned into him grabbing my dick,” he told The Sydney Morning Herald. “You’re driving, you’re absolutely trapped… he would grope, he would rub my penis.”

The independent has contacted Mr. Jones’ lawyers for comment.

New South Wales Premier Chris Minns has declined to comment on the matter. “We should let the police conduct this investigation without comment from me and others,” he said.

A former teacher, Mr Jones coached the Wallabies from 1984 to 1988 before embarking on a long and controversial television career.

His influence extended into politics, serving as a speechwriter and advisor to prominent Liberal Party figures including former Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser, although his own political bids were unsuccessful.

Jones built a huge audience as host of the breakfast show on Sydney’s 2GB station, but also courted controversy. He was particularly criticized in 2012 for saying that the father of then Prime Minister Julia Gillard had “died of shame” over the lies she told “every time she stood for parliament”.

In 2019, he faced an advertising boycott after suggesting someone shove a sock down New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s throat.

For health reasons, he stopped full-time broadcasting in 2020.