source : the age
Warning: Graphic content
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of former 2GB broadcaster Alan Jones’ indecent assault and sexual touching trial in the historic Downing Centre Local Court in Sydney.
Today, The Sydney Morning Herald’s chief investigative reporter, Kate McClymont, returns to the witness box for a second day of evidence.
Jones, 85, is standing trial on 19 counts of indecent assault and two counts of sexual touching without consent against five male complainants between 2003 and 2020. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges and denies the alleged physical acts occurred.
All five complainants have now given evidence in court. McClymont was called to give evidence by the Crown because she spoke to three of the complainants, dubbed “C”, “A” and “H” to protect their identities, when she was investigating allegations against the former broadcaster.
The Herald published a series of reports by McClymont about Jones in late 2023 and early 2024. Her reporting triggered a police investigation and McClymont gave a statement to police in June 2024.
Jones was arrested in November that year. During cross-examination on Tuesday by Jones’ barrister, Gabrielle Bashir, SC, McClymont was asked if there was a “profit motive” for newspaper articles.
“The story has to sell papers, doesn’t it?” Bashir asked.
“That’s not my problem, no,” McClymont replied.
“Stories are published to increase the readership of print papers [and] to get clicks online,” Bashir said. “No,” McClymont replied.
Bashir pressed that higher readership numbers encourage advertisers to invest in the newspaper.
“As a general proposition, yes, but that is not my role,” McClymont said.
McClymont said she did not know what impact her reporting on Jones had on readership figures or subscriptions. She agreed that Jones is a very public figure in NSW.
Read more from McClymont’s first day of evidence here.
Support is available from the National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732) or the Men’s Referral Service on 1300 766 491.
McClymont has previously told the court that she provided a statement to police about Jones in June 2024, before the former broadcaster was arrested in November that year.
She agrees that she continued to publish articles about Jones after giving that statement, including attending some court appearances in this case.
McClymont said she had been given “no indication” that she would be a prosecution witness if the Jones case went to trial. She said that once this possibility was raised, she stopped reporting on Jones.
Judge Glenn Walsh steps in to halt a line of questioning by Jones’ barrister, Gabrielle Bashir, SC, regarding an article co-written by McClymont and a colleague in December 2024 about the first court mention after charges were laid against Jones.
“This is not the defamation list,” the judge said.
McClymont is asked to leave the courtroom during a short legal argument.
McClymont is now being asked about her conversation with complainant “H”, who contacted her in January 2024.
“H”, an executive, alleges the then broadcaster placed his hand on the top of his back at an event in Sydney and “went slowly down my back and then rested it on my bottom”.
McClymont agreed that “H” told her it was “not a big deal”.
Jones’ barrister, Gabrielle Bashir, SC, put to McClymont that she suggested to “H” that Jones was using his position of power to get what he wanted, and the complainant “adopted that”. McClymont agreed.
She published his allegation in an article in mid-2024, the court heard. “I said I wouldn’t use his name [or organisation],” McClymont said.
The court hears that McClymont texted the mother of complainant “A” on March 19, 2024, and said: “All I want to say is Alan Jones is the subject of a police investigation!!!!”
Jones’ barrister, Gabrielle Bashir, SC, asked McClymont if she also texted later that day, “I hope the shit does hit the fan for him!” followed by a smiley face and “two poo emojis”.
“Probably,” McClymont said, and a copy of the messages confirmed that account.
“I think that’s in reply … to her message,” McClymont said.
McClymont agrees that she first spoke to complainant “A” on December 8, 2023, and an article including his allegations was published in the Herald on December 11.
Complainant “A” alleges Jones kissed him non-consensually when he was 17. The court heard “A” and his mother connected with McClymont after reading a story she wrote about Jones in December 2023.
Jones’ barrister, Gabrielle Bashir, SC, put to McClymont that she used the word “passionate” when speaking to “A” about the alleged kiss.
“I think his mother had used it previously but, yes, I had put that to him,” McClymont said.
She said she asked him: “Was it passionate or was it a peck on the cheek?”
“He said it wasn’t a peck on the cheek,” McClymont said.
Kate McClymont has returned to the witness box and is being asked about a conversation she had with the mother of complainant “A” in December 2023.
Jones’ barrister, Gabrielle Bashir, SC, plays a clip from the recorded conversation. The court has heard the mother gave McClymont an account of the allegation, including that police were involved.
“This would be an absolute nail in the coffin that police were involved,” McClymont said to the mother in the call. “That’s just brilliant. Oh, I’m breathless.”
“You meant the nail in the coffin of Alan Jones,” Bashir asked McClymont on Wednesday.
If you are just catching up now, here is what The Sydney Morning Herald’s chief investigative reporter said in her evidence on Tuesday in Alan Jones’ indecent assault and sexual touching trial.
Kate McClymont is returning to the NSW Local Court witness box at 11.30am (AEDT).
- Kate McClymont said she spoke to three men who would later become complainants in this case while she was researching allegations against Jones and writing a series of articles in late 2023 and early 2024. At that time, the former 2GB broadcaster had not been charged with any offences.
- She spoke to complainant “C” in September 2023; “A” and his mother in December 2023; and “H” in January 2024. None of the men received benefits from the masthead for their information, she told the court.
- McClymont gave a statement to police in June 2024 and Jones was charged in November that year with the offences at the centre of this trial.
- Jones’ barrister, Gabrielle Bashir, SC, suggested newspapers have a “profit motive” and stories “have to sell papers”; McClymont said with a small laugh that this was “not my problem” and not part of her role. To the suggestion that Jones is a divisive figure, she replied: “If you say so.”
- McClymont agreed that she used the expression “go the grope” when she interviewed “C” in 2023 about his allegations, and that “C” repeated it in agreement. The words “he’d go the grope” ran prominently in her story, the court heard.
- McClymont denied a suggestion that she knew “go the grope” would be a “catchy quote”. “We are halfway through an interview,” McClymont said. “You’re having a conversation with somebody. You’re not looking for sexy phrases to put in a story.”
- She agreed that “C” had used the words “grabbing” and “rubbing” before she used the word “grope”. She also agreed that she did not publish a comment by “C” that the alleged touching was “never skin on skin” but over his clothing.
- The court has heard that “C” spoke about his allegations about Jones to former 2GB heavyweight Ray Hadley and author and Herald columnist Peter FitzSimons in 2019, and to McClymont in 2023. McClymont agreed that “C” told her in 2023 that FitzSimons possibly had “his own axe to grind” with Jones, and that he put Hadley in the “same bracket”. McClymont disagreed that this was a matter that might have affected the credibility of “C”.
- “C” has also alleged Jones put his hand under the table at a lunch in Sydney and touched him on the penis over his clothing. Former 2GB host Jason Morrison, now chief of staff at The Daily Telegraph, attended the lunch and gave evidence he did not witness the alleged incident. The court heard Morrison spoke to McClymont in November 2023 and said the same thing.
- McClymont did not report Morrison’s comments in her initial article in December 2023, the court heard, but she did in a separate article about Morrison in January 2024. Bashir put to McClymont that the January article was a “hit job” on Morrison. “No,” McClymont replied. “It was designed to make Morrison look bad,” Bashir said. “No,” McClymont replied.
- McClymont rejected a suggestion that she encouraged “C” to make a police complaint about Jones in January 2024. “I didn’t encourage him; I supported him,” she said.
Kate McClymont, The Sydney Morning Herald’s chief investigative reporter, is giving evidence about her interactions with three of the five men who would later become complainants in Alan Jones’ indecent assault and sexual touching trial.
Each of the five complainants has given evidence. Prosecutors withdrew the sole charge relating to a sixth complainant during the trial, and a number of other charges were dropped before the trial started.
The court has heard that McClymont spoke to the three men, now known as complainants “C”, “A” and “H”, between late 2023 and early 2024 when she was researching allegations against Jones.
The Herald published a series of articles by McClymont about Jones starting in December 2023. NSW Police set up Strike Force Bonnefin in response to the Herald’s reporting and Jones was arrested in November 2024.
McClymont gave evidence on Tuesday about her interview with “C” in September 2023, and is expected to be asked today about her interactions with “A” and “H”. These are the men’s allegations.
- Complainant “C”, a former staffer to Jones, alleges the then 2GB host kissed and touched him without his consent over a five-month period, including kissing him in the lift of Jones’ harbourside apartment and touching him under the table at a lunch in Sydney. The complainant was in his early 20s. The court heard he spoke to McClymont in 2023 about his allegations and she reported on them without naming him.
- Complainant “A”, now a doctor, alleges Jones kissed him non-consensually when he was 17. The court heard “A” and his mother connected with McClymont in late 2023 after reading a story she wrote about Jones.
- Complainant “H”, an executive, alleges Jones touched him at an event in Sydney and the then broadcaster placed his hand on the top of his back and “went slowly down my back and then rested it on my bottom”. He told the court he authorised McClymont in early 2024 to pass his details onto police, to whom he provided a statement, but not to use his information in a story.
McClymont is the fourth high-profile media figure to give evidence in the trial, following Jones’ former 2GB colleagues Ray Hadley and Jason Morrison, and Herald columnist Peter FitzSimons.
Jones’ barrister, Gabrielle Bashir, SC, is expected to submit at the end of the trial that one complainant, dubbed “C”, made allegations against Jones in 2019 against the backdrop of professional rivalry between Hadley and Jones.
The evidence given by Hadley, Morrison and FitzSimons was relatively narrow: they were questioned about their interactions with “C” in 2019.
The court has heard that McClymont did not speak to “C” until four years later, in 2023, and his allegations against Jones were included in an anonymised form in an article published by the Herald in December that year.
Warning: Graphic content
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of former 2GB broadcaster Alan Jones’ indecent assault and sexual touching trial in the historic Downing Centre Local Court in Sydney.
Today, The Sydney Morning Herald’s chief investigative reporter, Kate McClymont, returns to the witness box for a second day of evidence.
Jones, 85, is standing trial on 19 counts of indecent assault and two counts of sexual touching without consent against five male complainants between 2003 and 2020. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges and denies the alleged physical acts occurred.
