The Sydney Morning Herald’s chief investigative reporter, Kate McClymont, has told a court she is not driven by newspaper profits or online page views as she gave evidence about her reporting on former 2GB heavyweight Alan Jones.
McClymont was called to give evidence on Tuesday in Jones’ indecent assault and sexual touching trial in the NSW Local Court, following testimony in September by Herald colleague and columnist Peter FitzSimons and former 2GB broadcaster Ray Hadley.
The court has heard McClymont spoke to three of the five complainants at the centre of Jones’ trial, dubbed “C”, “A” and “H” to protect their identities, before police laid charges against the broadcaster in November 2024.
NSW Police set up Strike Force Bonnefin in response to the Herald’s reporting about Jones in late 2023 and early 2024.
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.
Profit ‘not my problem’: McClymont
McClymont agreed under cross-examination by Jones’ barrister, Gabrielle Bashir, SC, that one purpose of newspaper reporting may be an attempt to hold individuals and institutions accountable.
“There is also a profit motive to stories for a newspaper?” Bashir said. “The story has to sell papers, doesn’t it?”
“That’s not my problem, no,” McClymont said, with a small laugh.
“Stories are published to increase the readership of print papers [and] to get clicks online,” Bashir said. “No,” McClymont replied.
Bashir pressed that higher readership numbers encourage advertisers to invest in the newspaper.
“As a general proposition, yes, but that is not my role,” McClymont said.
McClymont said she did not know what impact her reporting on Jones had on readership figures or subscriptions. She agreed that Jones is a very public figure in NSW.
“He’s a divisive figure,” Bashir said. “If you say so,” McClymont replied.
‘Go the grope’
“C”, a former staffer to Jones, has alleged Jones touched him non-consensually while he was driving the then-broadcaster.
McClymont was played a clip from a recording of her interview with “C” in September 2023, during which he told her about the alleged touching and said he would “just try and wriggle out”. She said to him: “You’re driving, so you’re trapped?”
The man replied: “Absolutely trapped.”
Bashir took McClymont to her reporting of the allegations by “C”, where she quoted the complainant as saying: “[You’d] sort of push his hand away, just try and wriggle out. But you’re driving, you’re absolutely trapped.”
She put to McClymont that “the way it is set out in the article is not the way it transpired in the interview”, drawing her attention to the words “but you’re driving”. “I disagree,” McClymont said.
McClymont agreed that she used the expression “go the grope” during the interview to refer to Jones’ alleged actions, and that “C” repeated it in agreement. The words “he’d go the grope” ran prominently in her story, the court heard.
“When you used those words, you knew that would be a catchy quote?” Bashir said.
‘You’re not looking for sexy phrases’
“We are halfway through an interview,” McClymont said. “You’re having a conversation with somebody. You’re not looking for sexy phrases to put in a story. It’s not on your mind.”
McClymont agreed that “C” had used the words “grabbing” and “rubbing” before she used the word “grope”.
She also agreed that she did not publish a comment by “C” that the alleged touching was “never skin on skin” but over his clothing.
Rivalry between Hadley, Jones
The court has heard that “C” spoke about his allegations about Jones to Hadley and FitzSimons in 2019 and to McClymont in 2023.
McClymont agreed that “C” told her in 2023 that FitzSimons possibly had “his own axe to grind” with Jones, and that he put Hadley in the “same bracket”.
‘You’re having a conversation with somebody. You’re not looking for sexy phrases to put in a story. It’s not on your mind.’
Kate McClymont during cross-examination
McClymont disagreed that this was a matter that might have affected the credibility of “C”.
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 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.
“You must have known in 2019 that Ray Hadley had tried to unseat Jones from breakfast [radio] in that very year,” Bashir said.
“Maybe. It’s not something that I recall one way or another, really,” McClymont said.
“C” has also alleged Jones put his hand under the table at a lunch in Sydney and touched him on the penis over his clothing.
Former 2GB host Jason Morrison, now chief of staff at The Daily Telegraph, attended the lunch and has given evidence he did not witness the alleged incident. The court heard that he spoke to McClymont in November 2023 and said he did not see anything untoward.
McClymont did not report this in her initial article in December 2023, the court heard, but did in a separate article about Morrison in January 2024.
Bashir put to McClymont that the January article was a “hit job” on Morrison. “No,” McClymont replied.
“It was designed to make Morrison look bad,” Bashir said.
“No,” McClymont replied.
Bashir also put to McClymont that she encouraged “C” to make a police complaint about Jones in January 2024.
“I didn’t encourage him; I supported him,” McClymont said.
Police statement
McClymont told the court she gave her own statement to police about Jones in June 2024 and another statement in September 2025.
She agreed NSW Police asked her for any notes or recordings made by her or any colleagues working with her when she spoke to the complainants and other witnesses.
“I believed that at the time the people remained confidential sources,” McClymont said. She was issued with a subpoena by the Director of Public Prosecutions this year, the court heard.
Men’s rights activist in court
Author and commentator Bettina Arndt briefly attended the trial for the first time as McClymont started giving evidence. Arndt is a former sex therapist who also wrote for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age about social issues during the 1980s, before becoming a men’s rights activist in the 1990s.
The last high-profile trial involving media personalities and sexual assault allegations attended by Arndt was former Liberal staffer Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation case against Network Ten and its former star Lisa Wilkinson.
Race that stops a trial
NSW Local Court Judge Glenn Walsh offered to pause evidence for Jones to view the Melbourne Cup, and the court took a 20-minute break.
Walsh suggested before McClymont was called back to the box after the lunch break that there was a “particular race” the former 2GB broadcaster might be interested in at 3pm, while Jones chuckled in the front row.
McClymont returns to the witness box on Wednesday.
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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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Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: www.smh.com.au
