The strike force was formed after a lengthy investigation by the Herald and The Age, which revealed in December that Jones had used his position of power, first as a teacher and later as the country’s top-rating radio broadcaster, to allegedly prey on a number of young men.
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“I wish to commend the investigators of Strike Force Bonnefin [for] their tenacity and hard work … Historical matters such as this are incredibly hard to investigate,” Assistant Commissioner Michael Fitzgerald said.
“I wish to commend the victims [for] their bravery in coming forward. They are fully aware, as are the investigators, that the hard work is just beginning. They have given their statements fully aware they will go through the courts.
“The reports in the Herald and The Age did result in victims coming forward and the creation of Strike Force Bonnefin but … a number of witnesses have been assisting police over the years.”
Jones wore matching green pants and a green jacket as he sat beside a detective, grasping his walking stick, in the back of the white Hyundai SUV.
Another detective pushed through the waiting media pack when she exited the car’s passenger seat outside the police station. Photographers and camera operators swarmed the car as Jones sat expressionless inside.
The car idled for a few seconds before continuing into the station’s garage. Police said Jones was “calm” when arrested and immediately sought legal advice.
Electronic devices were taken into evidence by police.
NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb said the arrest came after a “very long, thorough, protracted investigation” and she expected more people may come forward with allegations.
“I did visit the strike force some weeks and months ago to look at the work that they have been doing. It is very complex and protracted, and I know that those officers have been working tirelessly to lead today’s operation,” she said.
“I can’t speculate in this particular case, but what is often the case is when it is known – the full circumstances and those parties involved – other people may come forward, and we are anticipating that other people may come forward.”
Premier Chris Minns said he understood the public interest in the case, but added he would not offer running commentary.
In 1965, Jones was a 23-year-old teacher at Brisbane Grammar, where he is alleged to have put his hands down the pants of a student and squeezed his testicles. The student said when he was struck in the groin by a cricket ball, Jones – who was teaching English as well as coaching cricket – held his testicles for “maybe 30 seconds to a minute”.
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At Jones’ next school, The King’s School in the Sydney suburb of Parramatta, a student alleged Jones put his hand down his athletic shorts.
During his 35 years as the most successful and feared broadcaster of his generation, Jones is also alleged to have indecently assaulted young men.
One former 2GB employee has alleged he was repeatedly indecently assaulted by Jones.
Brad Webster (not his real name) told the Herald and The Age last year: “If I went to the police, Jones could be charged. What he did to me was a criminal offence. He cannot die without people knowing what he’s done.”
Jones was 65 when Webster was hired at age 20 to do menial jobs including driving the radio star from the station’s Pyrmont studios to his apartment in the Circular Quay building, dubbed The Toaster.
“During those 10 minutes, it would be wandering hands and then it just gradually became him grabbing my dick … you’re driving, you’re absolutely trapped … he’d go the grope, he’d rub my penis,” Webster said.
Jones is also alleged to have kissed him in the lift and exposed himself in the apartment.
Like many others, Webster knew he would be destroyed if he complained.
“Jones was more powerful than the prime minister,” said Webster. “He could pick up the phone to John Howard and demand for things to be done.”
One former radio producer, who asked not to be named due to fear of reprisals, said that, while he didn’t see Jones touching anyone’s genitals, “I did see inappropriate behaviour and I saw it on a number of occasions.”
The producer said Jones’ petting and pawing of young men was “uninvited”, “predatory”, “brazen” and “absolutely confronting”.
Jones, he said, “would be all over them – he wouldn’t take his hands off them”.
He said the young men, including staff, waiters and singers on Jones’ show, “would be very embarrassed and very uncomfortable”.
Several men from the arts community have alleged that Jones assaulted them at his apartment overlooking the Sydney Opera House.
One, a musician, said he didn’t say anything to anyone because Jones was immensely powerful and no one wanted to risk getting the broadcaster offside. “You get on the wrong side and he’ll ruin you,” he said.
In 2008, a young waiter who was 22 at the time said he was working at a Kiama restaurant when an inebriated Jones grabbed and fondled his penis without consent.
The late tech entrepreneur Alex Hartman, who died in 2019, told four journalists Jones indecently assaulted him as a teenager. “I was his prey … I know I am not the only one, and this will come out somehow.” Hartman also claimed that Jones “forces himself on young men and uses his power in a predatory way”.
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In January 2017, a then-schoolboy told the Herald and The Age he was invited to spend a weekend at Jones’ Fitzroy Falls property in the NSW Southern Highlands. The broadcaster had taken an interest in the boy’s family following numerous difficulties, including the death of the boy’s sister.
The boy later gave a statement to police in which he alleged that he and Jones, who was 75 at the time, watched a movie before Jones passionately kissed him on the lips and placed his left hand on the boy’s buttocks. After pushing Jones away, he told the police that he went to the bathroom “with my loofah and soap and began scrubbing my mouth, inside and out, as much as I could”.
He later told his mother that someone with “power and money” had done “something to him which he shouldn’t have”.
Jones denied the allegations raised by the Herald and The Age in December 2023 and threatened to sue. He is yet to commence legal action.
In March, he released a video in which he claimed medical ailments had kept him from appearing on the conservative ADH (Australian Digital Holdings) TV, which broadcasts to a small audience via social media platforms.
“The get-Jones campaign is nothing new in my life,” Jones said in the video.
Although Jones announced in the video that he had “every intention of returning to broadcasting”, he has not been on air since the Herald and The Age raised the allegations last year.
Additional reporting by Perry Duffin and Daniel Lo Surdo.
Support is available from the National Sexual Assault, Domestic and Family Violence Counselling Service (1800RESPECT) on 1800 737 732.
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