Retired Sydney broadcaster and former Australian national rugby coach Alan Jones has been charged with multiple sex crimes against men over two decades, police said.

The 83-year-old will appear in a Sydney court on December 18 on 24 charges relating to eight alleged victims between 2001 and 2019, Assistant Police Commissioner Michael Fitzgerald said.

Mr Fitzgerald said the youngest of the alleged victims was 17 when the first offense allegedly took place.

“As for the victims, we will argue that the accused knew some personally, some professionally. And we will also argue that some of the victims when the alleged offense took place was the first time they had ever met the accused,” Mr Fitzgerald told reporters.

Jones’ attorney, Bryan Wrench, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Jones was arrested at his Sydney beachfront apartment on Monday morning and made no comment to the media as he left a police station on Monday evening.

He hosted a popular breakfast radio show in Sydney from 2002 until his retirement in 2020.

Jones was considered one of the most powerful people in the Australian media.

He was also a successful coach of the Australian national rugby union team, the Wallabies, for four years starting in 1984, with the team winning 86 out of 102 matches under his leadership.

Jones was also influential in Conservative politics and was a speechwriter for Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser.

Mr Fraser was in power from 1975 to 1983 and died in 2015.

Police set up a task force to investigate Jones after The Sydney Morning Herald reported last December allegations that Jones had used his position of power, first as a school teacher and later as a popular broadcaster, to kidnap a number of young people.

The charges include 11 counts of aggravated indecent assault and nine counts of assault with an act of indecency.

There were also two counts of sexual assault and two counts of common assault.