Alan Jones trial live updates: SMH journalist Kate McClymont asked about Herald articles in former 2GB broadcaster’s indecent assault, sexual touching trial

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of former 2GB broadcaster Alan Jones’ indecent assault and sexual touching trial in the historic Downing Centre District Court in Sydney.

Today, The Sydney Morning Herald’s chief investigative reporter, Kate McClymont, has been called to give evidence by the Crown.

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. The trial has heard McClymont spoke to three of the men when she was investigating allegations against the broadcaster, which culminated in a series of reports.

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.

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Kate McClymont is being asked about articles and columns written by current and former Herald colleagues in 2018 and 2019 about then-2GB heavyweights Alan Jones and Ray Hadley.

The court has previously heard that Hadley signed a “secret contract” in December 2018 to take over Jones’ breakfast radio slot from July 2019 and double his salary to $4 million.

During his own evidence earlier this year, Hadley told the court the contract fell through when the chief proponent of the deal, John Singleton, sold down his stake in Macquarie Media, then the owner of 2GB. However, he kept the increase in his salary.

Gabrielle Bashir, SC, puts to McClymont that a series of articles by a former colleague in 2019 “were questioning whether Mr Jones’ position as a broadcaster at 2GB was precarious”.

McClymont is asked to leave the courtroom during a legal argument, as is standard.

Kate McClymont agrees with Jones’ barrister, Gabrielle Bashir, SC, that reporters do not have to be satisfied of “reasonable prospects of conviction” before publishing an article about allegations of criminality.

Bashir puts to her that “special investigations under your name sell newspapers”, leading to an objection from prosecutor Georgina Wright, SC, that the questioning is “unduly repetitive”.

The cross-examination by Jones’ barrister, Gabrielle Bashir, SC, has started. Bashir puts to McClymont that there “there is … a profit motive” for newspaper reporting.

McClymont says with a small laugh that this is “not my problem, no”.

Bashir presses that higher readership numbers encourage advertisers to invest in the newspaper.

“As a general proposition, yes, but that is not my role,” McClymont says.

Prosecutor Georgina Wright, SC, asks McClymont if she ever offered “money or any benefit” to complainants “C”, “H” and “A” for information.

“No,” the Herald’s chief investigative reporter says. She says none of the three men received any benefit from the masthead in return for the information they provided.

McClymont says she did not give information about the complainants to police when asked in 2025 because “I believed at the time the people remained confidential sources”.

She was later issued with subpoenas by the Director of Public Prosecutions, the court hears.

McClymont says she did not have any contact with complainants “M” and “J”.

Kate McClymont agrees she met with NSW police on June 17, 2024, and signed a police statement about her articles about Jones on August 30.

She gave police her emails to Jones and any responses she had received from him and his lawyers, the court hears.

On November 18, 2024, McClymont wrote an article about Jones being charged with offences against a number of men.

McClymont agrees she spoke to complainant “H” on January 15, 2024, but did not publish allegations involving him until May that year. She agrees she spoke to “C” in September 2023.

Kate McClymont is in the witness box now. Prosecutor Georgina Wright, SC, is asking her some questions about her reporting on Alan Jones.

The Herald’s chief investigative reporter agrees that in December 2023 she wrote an article about allegations made against Jones, and she sought comment from him before publication.

“By text message and by email,” McClymont said of the modes of communication she employed in seeking comment from Jones.

The court hears she received a reply from Jones’ lawyers.

The initial article was followed by a second article within days, McClymont agrees, and she sought comment again. Asked if she received a reply, McClymont said: “I think maybe from his lawyers.”

All five complainants in the trial have now 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 complainants have been given pseudonyms.

Kate McClymont, The Sydney Morning Herald’s chief investigative reporter, is expected to give evidence about her interactions with three of the complainants as she investigated allegations about Jones.

This is the evidence given by the complainants. Jones denies the alleged physical acts occurred.

• Complainant “J”, a former teen athlete, alleges Jones kissed and touched him non-consensually over a number of years. During the trial, the Crown extended the date range for the alleged offences to cover a period when “J” was aged between 17 and 21.
• 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 at a later date about his allegations and she reported on them without naming him.
• Complainant “M”, a former athlete, alleges Jones kissed him non-consensually on two occasions when he was aged in his 30s. “M” says Jones sent him weekly flowers for years and arranged for a helicopter to fly him to his rural property.
• 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 to pass his details onto police, to whom he provided a statement in 2024, but not to use his information in a story.
• 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 after reading a story she wrote about Jones in 2023.

NSW Police set up Strike Force Bonnefin in response to the Herald’s reporting about Jones in late 2023 and early 2024. Jones was arrested in November 2024.

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.

The evidence of Hadley, Morrison and FitzSimons was relatively narrow: they were questioned about their interactions with one of the five complainants in the case, dubbed “C”.

The court has heard that McClymont, who wrote a series of investigative reports about Jones from late 2023, engaged with other complainants while she was investigating allegations against the former 2GB heavyweight.

The court heard that “C” confided in Hadley in 2019 that Jones had non-consensually touched and kissed him over a period of several months nearly 20 years ago, when he worked as a staffer to Jones.

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 District Court in Sydney.

Today, The Sydney Morning Herald’s chief investigative reporter, Kate McClymont, has been called to give evidence by the Crown.

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. The trial has heard McClymont spoke to three of the men when she was investigating allegations against the broadcaster, which culminated in a series of reports.

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.