One of Australia’s most influential media figures arrested over sex abuse claims

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

Detectives from the New South Wales Police’s 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 set up in March to examine reports of indecent assault and sexual touching between 2001 and 2019, police confirmed in a statement.

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

Mr Jones was escorted out via his complex’s car park to avoid the assembled media and subsequently taken to Day Street police station in the back of an unmarked police vehicle at around 11am. He was joined at the station by his lawyers, Chris Murphy and Bryan Wrench.

Police said he had not been charged yet.

New South Wales Police chief Karen Webb described the inquiry as “very complex” and “protracted”, commending officers for their thorough work.

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

Mr Jones, a highly influential figure in Australian media, allegedly 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 Age last year.

Mr Jones has consistently denied wrongdoing.

Accusing Mr Jones of assault, a former employee of 2GB, the radio station which ran the former coach’s popular show from 2002 until 2020, said: “What he did to me was a criminal offence. He cannot die without people knowing what he’s done.”

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

“During those 10 minutes, it would be wandering hands and then it just gradually became him grabbing my d***,” he was quoted as saying by The Sydney Morning Herald. “You’re driving, you’re absolutely trapped…he’d go the grope, he’d rub my penis.”

The Independent has reached out to Mr Jones’s lawyers for comment.

New South Wales premier Chris Minns has refused to comment on the matter. “We need to let police conduct this inquiry free of commentary 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 broadcasting career.

His influence extended into politics, serving as a speechwriter and advisor for prominent Liberal Party figures, including former prime minister Malcolm Fraser, though his own political bids were unsuccessful.

Jones built a massive audience hosting the breakfast show on Sydney’s 2GB station but courted controversy as well. He notably received backlash in 2012 for saying then prime minister Julia Gillard’s father had "died of shame" due to the lies she told “every time she stood for parliament”.

He faced an advertising boycott in 2019 after suggesting someone should “shove a sock” down then New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern’s throat.

He retired from full-time broadcasting in 2020 due to health reasons.