‘No benefit’ for alleged Alan Jones victims in Kate McClymont news articles, court told

The award-winning journalist who revealed Alan Jones’s alleged indecent assaults says she didn’t offer benefits to complainants for stories.

Kate McClymont detailed indecent assault allegations against the longtime shock jock in a December 2023 article, leading to his arrest at his harbourside home a year later.

She and her reporting have been linked to four of five complainants alleging Jones indecently assaulted or sexually touched them without consent between 2003 and 2020.

The Sydney Morning Herald’s chief investigative reporter was flanked by masthead editor Jordan Baker entering a Sydney court to testify against Jones.

McClymont told the court she hadn’t offered money or other benefits to the three complainants whose allegations she reported, nor had they received anything from her employer.

She said she always sought comment, either by text or email, from Jones before publishing.

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The nine-time Walkley award winner said she didn’t disclose the men’s allegations to each other and later didn’t provide information about the complaints to police because she believed they remained confidential sources.

Under cross-examination, she rejected suggestions by Jones’s barrister Gabrielle Bashir SC that it enhances her reputation to publish special investigations under her name.

She disagreed there was a profit motive for newspaper reporting, telling the court selling newspapers was “not my problem”.

McClymont told the court she didn’t know what effect her Jones articles had on readership figures for the Sydney Morning Herald.

“Alan Jones is a divisive figure,” Bashir asked.

“If you say so,” the journalist replied, sparking chuckles from onlookers.

She and Jones did not make eye contact as she gave evidence but the veteran broadcaster turned slightly to watch her leave the courtroom on one occasion.

McClymont’s testimony continues.

A former radio staffer told the court McClymont called him months before she published her article and told him she was investigating allegations of indecent assaults by Jones.

He said they met in person and he confided he had been repeatedly groped and kissed by the talkback titan without consent, including while he was driving.

He was given a pseudonym in her article so he couldn’t be identified.

A man’s allegations of being indecently assaulted by Jones as a 17-year-old were similarly anonymised in McClymont’s reporting after his mother passed on his contact details.

He told the reporter he feared losing Jones’s financial support when the septuagenarian kissed him without consent at his NSW Southern Highlands home.

McClymont’s reporting prompted a famous athlete to go to police with claims of being indecently assaulted and sexually touched without consent by Jones years earlier.

Another complainant – an executive – reached out to the journalist about his experience with Jones after reading her article, but insisted he hadn’t given her permission to write about it.

He said he was upset when he saw anonymised allegations aired in a later article.

Jones, 85, has pleaded not guilty to 21 charges of indecent assault and sexual touching without consent against the five complainants.

Bashir argued during her opening address her client’s media rivals were involved in at least two of the allegations against him.

“Rivalry, treachery, double dealing, money, hatred, desperation, opportunism and more are at the heart of this case,” she declared in August.

The trial has so far featured testimony from prominent media figures such as Jones’s rival, former 2GB mornings host Ray Hadley, and McClymont’s stablemate Peter FitzSimons.

Support is available from the National Sexual Assault, Domestic and Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732).

AAP