{"id":841563,"date":"2026-08-03T09:44:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T09:44:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/841563\/"},"modified":"2026-08-03T09:44:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T09:44:14","slug":"alan-jones-former-australian-rugby-coach-on-trial-for-indecent-assault-claims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/841563\/","title":{"rendered":"Alan Jones: Former Australian rugby coach on trial for indecent assault claims"},"content":{"rendered":"

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A top talkback host, who is also the former coach of Australia\u2019s national rugby team, has gone on trial, accused of sexual offending against multiple men and boys.<\/p>\n

Alan Jones<\/a>, 85, is charged with 20 counts of indecent assault<\/a> and two of sexual touching without consent.<\/p>\n

He has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges.<\/p>\n

Jones arrived at the Downing Centre Local Court in Sydney<\/a> on Monday morning for the start of the judge-alone trial, which is expected to continue for months.<\/p>\n

More than 70 witnesses will be called to give evidence.<\/p>\n

Jones and his lawyers declined to answer reporters\u2019 questions outside the court.<\/p>\n

\"ProtestersProtesters outside an earlier court hearing (Getty)<\/p>\n

Jones coached the Wallabies<\/a> \u2013 Australia\u2019s highly regarded national rugby team \u2013 from 1984 to 1987. Under his leadership, the team won 86 of their 102 matches.<\/p>\n

Over the past two decades, he has been best-known as a talkback host, presenting a popular Sydney breakfast radio programme on 2GB. He was regarded as one of the most powerful people in the country\u2019s media landscape.<\/p>\n

Jones was also influential in conservative politics, and was a speechwriter for Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser, who was in power from 1975 to 1983.<\/p>\n

Police<\/a> set up a strike force to investigate Jones after The Sydney Morning Herald reported in 2023 that Jones used his position of power, first as a schoolteacher and later as a popular broadcaster, to prey on a number of young men.<\/p>\n

\"AlanAlan Jones, centre, outside court on Monday (AP)<\/p>\n

None of the complainants can be identified for legal reasons.<\/p>\n

Prosecutor Georgina Wright said in her opening address on Monday that one of the complainants was about 16 years old and a budding sports champion when he first met Jones.<\/p>\n

Jones is accused of committing nine offenses against the man, including kissing him multiple times without consent and touching him while the man was driving.<\/p>\n

The complainant \u201cfelt trapped and didn\u2019t know what to do\u201d, Wright told the court.<\/p>\n

Another complainant, who was 21 years old and worked on Jones\u2019 radio program, would testify that Jones called him \u201cdarling\u201d and groped the man while he was driving, Wright told the court.<\/p>\n

Jones has repeatedly denied the allegations since he was arrested in 2024.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese allegations are either baseless or they distort the truth,\u201d he said a month after his arrest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":841564,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,36143,44598,48,11013,20049,9959,673,1861,8212,760,85,670],"class_list":["post-841563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-color-image","tag-courthouse","tag-crime","tag-horizontal","tag-human-interest","tag-law","tag-new-south-wales","tag-people","tag-photography","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-sydney"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/841563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=841563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/841563\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/841564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=841563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=841563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=841563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}