The Sydney Morning Herald’s chief investigative reporter told the mother of a man who has accused Alan Jones of kissing him non-consensually when he was a teen that it was “brilliant” that police were involved and it would be “the nail in the coffin”, a court has heard.
Kate McClymont, whose reporting on Jones triggered a police investigation into the former 2GB broadcaster, returned to the NSW Local Court witness box on Wednesday for a second day of evidence in his criminal trial.
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.
McClymont has testified that she spoke to three of the men who would later become complainants in the trial, now known as “C”, “A” and “H”, between late 2023 and early 2024. The chief investigative reporter gave a statement about Jones to police in June 2024.
The court has heard that “A” and his mother connected with McClymont after reading a story she wrote about Jones in late 2023. “A”, now a doctor, has alleged Jones kissed him non-consensually when he was 17.
“A” first spoke to police in 2018, the court has heard, but a formal investigation did not commence until years later.
During cross-examination on Wednesday by Jones’ barrister, Gabrielle Bashir, SC, McClymont was played a clip from her recorded conversation with the mother of “A” in December 2023.
The woman gave McClymont an account of her son’s allegation, the court heard, including that police were involved.
“This would be an absolute nail in the coffin that the police were involved,” McClymont said in the call. “That’s just brilliant. Oh, I’m breathless.”
Bashir put to McClymont: “You meant the nail in the coffin of Alan Jones.” “No,” McClymont replied.
Bashir pressed that McClymont was saying that it was a nail in the coffin that police were involved in the allegation of “A” about Jones.
McClymont disagreed, saying police had said around the time of the call that they had received no complaints about Jones and were not investigating him.
“The fact that someone has come forward and said, ‘we went to police’ … as far as the story goes, this is a significant event”, McClymont said. “It doesn’t mean killing Mr Jones. It is the nail in the coffin for the story.”
On December 12, 2023, McClymont said in a WhatsApp message to “A”: “And if police do re-open the investigation, please let me know. That would be big news for the story.”
Bashir also took McClymont to text messages she sent the mother of “A” on March 19, 2024, starting with: “All I want to say is Alan Jones is the subject of a police investigation!!!!”
Bashir asked McClymont if she also texted the mother later that day, “I hope the shit does hit the fan for him!” followed by a smiley face and “two poo emojis”.
“Probably,” McClymont said. She agreed after being shown a copy of the messages.
McClymont agreed that her December 2023 articles reporting allegations against Jones “generated massive interest for The Sydney Morning Herald”.
She also agreed it was fair to say “media channels were saturated” in December 2023 and again in November 2024, after Jones’ arrest, with the allegations that she was the first to report about Jones.
McClymont agreed that “H” contacted her in January 2024 and told her about an alleged incident at an event in Sydney that he described as “not a big deal”. He alleges the then broadcaster placed his hand on the top of his back at the event and “went slowly down my back and then rested it on my bottom”.
Bashir put to McClymont that she suggested to “H” that Jones was using his position of power to get what he wanted, and the complainant “adopted that”. McClymont agreed.
She published his allegation in an article in mid-2024, the court heard. “I said I wouldn’t use his name [or organisation],” McClymont said.
She said “H” did not tell her not to use what he told her, nor did he say that it was “off the record”.
“He didn’t complain to you that his account had been published, did he?” Bashir asked.
“No,” McClymont said. She said she passed on to “H” the contact details of one of the detectives investigating Jones. “He gave me permission to release his name to police,” McClymont said.
The court has heard that McClymont declined in September 2025 to provide transcripts or recordings of her conversations with complainants to police because they were confidential sources. She was later subpoenaed for this material, the court heard.
McClymont was also asked by Bashir about messages she received from Erin Bouda, then a NSW Police media spokesperson, starting on November 15, 2024. Jones was arrested on November 18, the court heard.
McClymont agreed that Bouda’s father worked as a crime reporter for Nine, including for A Current Affair. This masthead is owned by Nine Entertainment.
“It’s Erin Bouda on my personal number,” Bashir read aloud from the text message exchange. “Please save this one as I’ll probably use it to reach out to you when it goes down.”
McClymont agreed she understood this was a reference to the arrest of Jones.
“Can hardly wait!” McClymont replied to Bouda.
On November 18 at 7.51am, McClymont texted Bouda on that number and asked if Jones had been arrested “at his apartment”, the court heard, and Bouda replied: “Yes.”
McClymont asked whether “we say arrested or taken into custody” and Bouda said “arrested”.
“Beauty!!” McClymont replied, the court heard.
Bouda also told McClymont when Jones was leaving his apartment, the court heard.
“You understood the purpose of that to be so that journalists and photographers could be at the ready, didn’t you,” Bashir asked. “Yes,” McClymont said.
“Images of Mr Jones under arrest in the police car followed, didn’t they,” Bashir said. “They did,” McClymont replied.
By 8.03am McClymont’s article about the arrest had been published, the court heard.
The trial continues.
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
