Jack Hahn: Channel 9 Reporter on Alan Jones having 24 indecent assault charges laid against him

Australian broadcaster Alan Jones has spent his first night on bail after having 24 indecent assault charges laid against him. 

They relate to eight alleged victims over the span of two decades, with the youngest being 17 years old at the time. 

The 83-year-old has been under investigation since March. 

Channel 9's Jack Hahn told Mike Hosking that Jones is a polarising and powerful figure in Australia. 

He says the news will be a surprise to many, given how the situation unfolded yesterday. 

Jones returns to court in a month's time. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Arrest yesterday the fame broadcast Rellen Jones in Australia was
both a shock and if you've followed the story really
for decades, perhaps not a surprise at all. By the
end of the day he was released but charged twenty
four offenses against eight alledged victims. Sidney reporter for the
Today Show, Jack Harnes with us Jack morning, Good morning
to you.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Mike. Guess there's certainly a polarizing and powerful figure here
in Australia that really cannot be understated. So look, this
news not necessarily a surprise to some, but probably a
shock to many, just given the nature of the charges
and the way that I unfolded yesterday.

Speaker 1 (00:33):
And interesting the level of resource and over many, many
months the police have put into it. So I mean
this has presumably been coming for some time.

Speaker 2 (00:41):
Yeah, So a nine month investigation, a special strike force
was set up by the State Police here in New
South Wales. Some of the best and brightest detectives put
on the cave. Many of those detectives were attached to
the child abuse Squad and we saw all of that
resource on display yesterday when they raided his twenty million
dollar Australian dollar apartment block at Circular Key. It's nicknamed

(01:04):
the Toaster Building, overlook the Harbor, the Harbor Bridge and
the Opera House, and yesterday it was swarming with about
a dozen detectives carrying out a search warren to those
detectives telling us that Alan Jones was calm, He of
course requested his legal team and they were there very
very quickly, speaking with detectives carrying out that search warrant.

(01:26):
And then after about four or five hours, he was
whisked away in an underground car park in the back
of an unmarked police car. Driving away. He was stony
faced at times. He was in a green jacket and
taken to a city police station where he was formerly
charged and as you mentioned, twenty four offenses he's now facing.

Speaker 1 (01:45):
I read a book twenty years ago called Jonestown by
a guy called Chris Masters, and the allegations, or some
of them at least, were in that book. Why did
the police take nun till twenty twenty four.

Speaker 2 (01:54):
To do anything, Well, that's a very good question. Look,
some of the reporting that has come out more recently,
particularly in December of last year. Yesterday, some we've seen
your police are saying, look, that reporting helped. It didn't
necessarily helping the investigation, because obviously when you're doing a
police investigation, you need to obtain evidence that can be
used in court beyond a reasonable doubt. But what that

(02:15):
reporting did yesterday last year, I should say, it put
this conversation back in the public spotlight, and it empowered victims,
according to police, to come forward to tell their story
to detective to help to help them form this brief
of evidence. So really, yeah, as I've mentioned there, over
the last twelve months or so, there's been new reporting
that has put this back in, these allegations back into

(02:37):
the public spotlight, and police have said that that has
helped and empowered victims to come through because they have
said that it's a very difficult journey for a victim,
particularly with this historical nature of the allegations, to come
forward perhaps ten or twenty years after these incidents and
tell their stories. But that's allegedly what these victims have
done and will obviously hear their stories play out when

(02:59):
the court process.

Speaker 1 (03:00):
Appreciate your time, Jack, Jack Hahn. He's back in court
December eighteen. Is Ellen Jones. He of course, as he's
done all these years, pled not guilty to all of it,
so it'll be fascinated and follow the trial given that
historically it's not only a difficult journey for the alleged
victims to tell, but of course the evidence issue in
a court setting will be interesting to follow as well.
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(03:22):
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