A veteran radio host and former rugby coach has been accused of sexually abusing eight men over two decades in Australia.

Alan Jones, 83, has been arrested and charged with 24 offenses of allegedly indecently assaulting and sexually assaulting seven men and a 17-year-old boy at his Sydney flat on Monday 18 November, police said of New South Wales in a statement. press release.

Although police did not name Jones, he was later identified by the Australian media.

“In March 2024, the Child Abuse Squad within the States Crime Command established Strike Force Bonnefin to investigate a series of alleged indecent assaults and sexual touching incidents between 2001 and 2019,” the NSWP said, according to the statement.

“Following extensive enquiries, at around 7.45am today (Monday 18 November), detectives from the strike force executed a search warrant at an establishment in Circular Quay where they arrested an 83-year-old man. ”

Jones was taken to Day Street Police Station where he was charged with 11 counts of aggravated indecent assault on a victim under the authority of the offender, nine counts of indecent assault, two counts of sexual assault of another person without consent and two counts. of common aggression.

The former radio host knew the alleged victims either personally or professionally, with some of the alleged offenses occurring after he first met them, according to BBC.

On Monday, Jones was seen heading to the Day Street police station in his squad car. He returned in the afternoon flanked by lawyers after being granted conditional bail, barring him from traveling and contacting his alleged victims, according to Sydney Morning Herald.

Jones has denied the assault charges. “Nothing has been tested. Nothing was proven. Alan Jones will properly plead his innocence in court,” his lawyer Chris Murphy told the Australian newspaper.

Jones will appear in Downing Center Local Court on Wednesday, December 18.

Jones is a household name in Australian broadcasting, having worked at 2GB for decades and in TV commentary. He also coached the Wallabies and Barbarians rugby teams and worked as a speechwriter and adviser for the Liberal Party.

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He retired in 2020, citing health issues, according to the BBC.

Jones’ arrest comes after his alleged abuse was detailed for the first time in an investigation led by the Sydney Morning Herald and the Melbourne news publication The Age, which started in December 2023.

Stations have reported the stories of several men who have accused Jones of sexually abusing them, including a former employee of Sydney news radio station 2GB who claimed Jones repeatedly indecently assaulted him, a restaurant waiter who accused Jones of groping her in 2008, when she was 22. and several members of the artistic community.

The late tech entrepreneur Alex Hartman, who died in 2019, also accused Jones of indecently assaulting him as a teenager.

Allegations of sexual abuse date back to 1965, when Jones was a 23-year-old teacher at Brisbane Grammar School, where he allegedly groped a student, according to Sydney Morning Herald.