Kate McClymont questioned about messages and recorded call at Alan Jones trial

Investigative journalist Kate McClymont has rejected a suggestion that a remark she made during a recorded phone conversation referred to Alan Jones personally. Under cross-examination at his Sydney trial, the Sydney Morning Herald’s chief investigative reporter said her description of new information as a “nail in the coffin” concerned the story she was investigating.

The recording, played in court, captured a call between McClymont and the mother of Jones’s youngest alleged victim, identified as complainant A. McClymont expressed excitement after learning that the boy had spoken with police during the year of the alleged assault. Defence barrister Gabrielle Bashir SC repeatedly suggested that the remark concerned Jones. McClymont denied that interpretation and said she was not referring to killing him.

Explaining her response, McClymont said police had told her after the publication of her December 2023 investigation that they had received no complaints about Jones and had not investigated him. The mother’s account that her son had previously spoken to police was therefore significant to her reporting, she said. The court heard that McClymont was subsequently connected with the detective who had spoken to the teenager in his school principal’s office.

Bashir also questioned McClymont about whether she had told the mother that the NSW police minister’s office and the police sex crimes unit had said her son would remain unidentified if the case reopened because he was under 18. Other questions concerned messages to the mother about a police investigation into Jones, including one expressing hope that he would face consequences and accompanied by two poo emojis.

McClymont acknowledged sending an enthusiastic message to a police media contact about Jones’s expected arrest. On the day police arrested him at his harbourside Circular Quay apartment, she also contacted that person to check details and responded positively when the arrest was confirmed.

Jones has denied all 21 charges of sexual touching and indecent assault. Five men allege that he assaulted or sexually touched them between 2003 and 2020. In testimony last month, complainant A said Jones put his tongue in his mouth and touched his bottom during an overnight stay at the former 2GB broadcaster’s Fitzroy Falls farm. A had begun corresponding with Jones at 13.

McClymont said she gave police a statement in June 2024 but continued covering the case because she had received no indication she would be called as a prosecution witness. She stopped reporting when told she would testify. Her third day in court is scheduled for Thursday. The trial continues before judge Glenn Walsh at the Downing Centre local court.