New South Wales Police have charged broadcaster Alan Jones with more offences following his arrest yesterday.
On Monday Jones was charged with 11 counts of aggravated indecent assault on complainants who were under his authority through an employment contract.
He was also charged with nine counts of assault with an act of indecency, two counts of sexually touching a person without consent and two counts of common assault between 2001 and 2019.
Police have now added charges relating to a ninth alleged victim, an additional two counts of assault with act of indecency have been added.
The now 83-year-old broadcaster ruled Sydney’s airwaves for four decades before moving to a role at Sky News and later online broadcaster ADT.
The offences Jones has been charged with occurred between 2001 and 2019. His legal representatives have declared that he will vigorously defend the charges, denied and misconduct and would assert his innocence when the matter was heard in court.
The broadcaster was arrested at his Circular Quay home on Monday as police executed a search warrant. He then spend the day with officers at the Day Street Police Station.
Allegations about Jones being involved in decades of alleged inappropriate behaviour were first reported in the Nine newspapers. In December 2023 Jones denied there were any truth to the multiple allegations. Lawyers representing the broadcaster said allegations outlined in The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald were not true and defamatory.
Yesterday police revealed that a secret taskforce named Strike Force Bonnefin had spent the last nine months investigating claims of alleged assaults by the now retired broadcaster.
Speaking to the media on Monday Assistant Commissioner Michael Fitzgerald said those who had shared their stories about the alleged assault should be applauded for “their bravery in coming forward” to give evidence against Jones.
“They are fully aware, as are the investigators, that the hard work is just beginning,” he said. “They have given their statements fully aware they will go through the courts.”
“In regards to the victims, we will allege that the accused knew some of them personally. Some of them professionally. And we’ll also allege that some of the victims, when the alleged offence took place, was the first time that they ever met the accused,” he said.
The case will have its first court hearing in December.
