Former Sydney radio announcer and rugby coach Alan Jones charged with sex crimes

SYDNEY (AP) — Retired Sydney radio announcer and former Australian rugby coach Alan Jones was charged Monday with multiple sex crimes against men over two decades, police said.

The 83-year-old will appear in court in Sydney on December 18 on 24 charges relating to eight alleged victims between 2001 and 2019, Assistant Police Commissioner Michael Fitzgerald said.

Fitzgerald said the youngest of the alleged victims was 17 when the first crime allegedly occurred.

“In relation to the victims, we will allege that the suspect knew some of them personally, some professionally. And we will also allege that for some victims, when the alleged crime occurred, it was the first time they had ever met the suspect,” Fitzgerald told reporters.

Jones’ attorney Bryan Wrench did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Jones was arrested at his Sydney waterfront apartment on Monday morning and made no comment to the media as he left a police station late on Monday.

Jones hosted a popular breakfast radio show in Sydney from 2002 until his retirement in 2020. He was considered one of the most powerful people in Australian media.

From early 1984 he was also a successful coach of the Australian national rugby union team, the Wallabies, for four years. Under his leadership, the team won 86 out of 102 games.

Jones was also influential in Conservative politics and was a speechwriter for Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser. Fraser was in power from 1975 to 1983. Fraser died in 2015.

Police set up a strike force to investigate Jones after The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper reported allegations in December last year that Jones used his position of power, first as a teacher and later as a popular broadcaster, to prey on a number of young men.

The indictment includes eleven counts of aggravated indecent assault and nine counts of assault with an act of indecency. There were also two charges of sexual touching and two charges of common assault.