Alan Jones Arrested

[FIGJAM]

Protecting the LNP brand much?

Janet may think that her opinions protect her extreme right wing mates, but all they do is damage those who are the more centre of the right.

The argument that there is a "mob-mentality" behind Jones' deviant behaviour, which has documented evidence from 1965, is unhinged.

Why it wasn't brought forward earlier, is the same reason as the 'Me Too' movement; which is the (alleged/convicted) perpetrators are very powerful.

 

[Chicken Treat]

A first notable defender.

Edit: SMH Article about that podcast episode. Bettina Arndt with defence input as well.

Media identity claims Alan Jones tried to touch his genitals and kiss him, but defends broadcaster

Former ABC radio star-turned podcaster Josh Szeps says he does not consider himself a victim of sexual assault despite the alleged incidents during his time as a producer.

www.smh.com.au

Prominent broadcaster and podcaster Josh Szeps has defended radio star Alan Jones despite revealing that the 83-year-old made repeated physical advances towards him as a young producer on his radio show, including trying to kiss him and touch his genitals.

In an episode of his Uncomfortable Conversations with Josh Szeps podcast, Szeps told listeners that Jones – who on Monday was arrested and charged with 26 offences against nine alleged victims after a top-secret police investigation – tried to “put his hand on my dick”, kiss him and rub his chest on several occasions while he worked as a junior producer on his radio show.

“It was clear that he had a crush on me, and he hit on me many times, and in that context, hitting on me meant making a physical move, not a verbal one. He tried to put his hand on my dick, he tried to kiss me, he tried to rub my chest, and I would just slap him off, and we would laugh, and we’d move on,” Szeps said.

Szeps is the first person since Jones’ arrest on Monday to publicly reveal an alleged encounter with the veteran radio star. However, Szeps – who is openly gay – said he did not consider himself a victim of sexual assault and understood Jones’ “inappropriate” advances as a way of flirting, calling the broadcaster “generous and passionate and kind”.

“He is a fiery, poetic, operatic whirlwind of a man, so in a weird way it just seemed to me kind of less strange that he would try to affirm our bond with a clumsy, physical pass than by doing what? Inviting me to tea with the prime minister? Taking me to an opening night and being sneered at by the cultural elite? Inviting me as his date to a luncheon with a bunch of homophobic old business titans? No. Every time he was rebuffed, which was every time because I had no interest in that, he backed off and usually laughed it off,” Szeps said.

“It wasn’t for me anything sinister, it wasn’t for me anything threatening. It was playful, it was excessively romantic.”

Jones’ lawyers have been contacted for comment about Szeps’ claims.

Throughout the podcast episode, Szeps repeatedly defended Jones, declaring him innocent until proven guilty and questioning the severity of Jones’ alleged offending compared with disgraced British entertainer Jimmy Savile and Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein.

“Unless the police have something that has never before been reported on and has never been found in the years of investigative journalism that was done into Alan Jones, none of the allegations back then had to do with him raping somebody, him forcing himself on somebody even after they said no, him locking a door and then having his way with somebody to my knowledge … to my knowledge, there’s none of that,” Szeps claimed.

Jones has been charged with 11 counts of aggravated indecent assault, 11 counts of assault with an act of indecency, two counts of sexually touching another person without their consent, and two counts of common assault.

Police said Jones knew some of his alleged victims personally, some professionally, and in some circumstances the alleged abuse took place the first time they met Jones. The youngest of the alleged victims was aged 17 at the time of the alleged offences. Jones’ lawyers said on Monday their client would fight the charges laid by Strike Force Bonnefin officers.

Szeps also used his podcast episode to suggest that Jones’ upbringing in conservative rural Queensland may have contributed to his views of relationships, while reiterating the allegations against Jones were not yet proven.

“We ought to temper our righteous fury against the [alleged] perpetrators of crimes, with a recognition that they are in part products of their environment,” Szeps said. “One of the reasons why they behave [the way] they do is because they come from a particular place in a particular time.”

Szeps said Jones had promoted him to a senior producer position “implausibly fast” and that he “played the cards” he was dealt during his working relationship with Jones.

“The casting couch is a casting couch for a reason,” he said. “If you have looks and youth on your side, then you play those cards. If you don’t have youth on your side, but you do have status and influence and money, you play those cards.”

Szeps did not name the station he was working for when the alleged incidents occurred. Jones defected from 2UE to 2GB in 2001.

Szeps lashed the “morally self-righteous” treatment of the “Alan Joneses of the world”, who he said had been demonised for centuries and “persecuted with the full force of the law” when they “express their love or their affection or their, just wanting to get their rocks off, when they express urges in ways that don’t conform to the polite society that they spent their whole life being excluded from”.

“And now we have the balls to pontificate about what an evil man he is for allegedly not expressing his sexuality respectfully and conventionally according to the proper norms according to the club that we spent his entire life excluding him from,” Szeps said.

But Szeps added that if the allegations against Jones were proven, the offending would have been “wrong and illegal”.

Szeps also criticised the historic treatment of gay men by NSW Police and labelled media coverage of the allegations against Jones and his arrest as “salacious”.

Men’s rights activist Bettina Arndt used the comments section of the podcast episode to describe Szeps’ commentary as “nuanced and intelligent”.

In her own blog post following Jones’ arrest, Arndt said she was “incensed at the gleeful targeting by the state and the media of this decent, principled man”.

“Do taxpayers really approve of the spending of hundreds of thousands from our police budget trying to prove some decades-old claims of gropes of bottoms or other bits of husky young men by this 83-year-old man?” she wrote.

I think there's a few points Josh is missing from this.

Like why are there 26 charges laid and how they came about.

And the fact he did the same shit to high school children.

 

[Pure_Ownage]

And if all else fails, and he goes to jail, the High Court will eventually rescue him like they did for Pell

"Not enough evidence, unsafe conviction blah blah blah"

On SM-A225F using BigFooty.com mobile app

He will probably die of old age by then anyway.

 

[Pure_Ownage]

Janet may think that her opinions protect her extreme right wing mates, but all they do is damage those who are the more centre of the right.

The argument that there is a "mob-mentality" behind Jones' deviant behaviour, which has documented evidence from 1965, is unhinged.

Why it wasn't brought forward earlier, is the same reason as the 'Me Too' movement; which is the (alleged/convicted) perpetrators are very powerful.

I don't disagree with that but while Jones should be held to account one has to hold the police to account for their lack of skill and their motives. If it was so obvious decades ago (which it probably was) they should have been throwing every resource at it to charge him then. To wait until he's almost dead and decades later it is probably too late to rescue lives he allegedly ruined-all to convict him and get a sentence that he won't serve much of (due to his age) really smacks of the police trying to convinct him now to make themselves look decent PR wise and distract from their own incompetence. While I believe any justice is better than none they should have got this outcome a long time ago. I know it would be nice if we didn't have to be that cynical but realistically that is what it looks like.

 

[HairyO]

If only Jones could be charged and punished for all the non-sexual abuse he perpetrated for decades.

One of my loved ones (a highly regarded at the top of their profession peer of Jones (age wise)) told me that they were abused by Jones during a radio interview, and I’ve never forgiven Jones for that.

Lucky for Jones that I never crossed his path around Circular Quay, or he might have copped a tongue lashing from me in retribution.

He should be charged for being rude in an interview ?

Doeant quite seem at the same level as these accusations.

 

[HairyO]

A first notable defender.

Edit: SMH Article about that podcast episode. Bettina Arndt with defence input as well.

Media identity claims Alan Jones tried to touch his genitals and kiss him, but defends broadcaster

Former ABC radio star-turned podcaster Josh Szeps says he does not consider himself a victim of sexual assault despite the alleged incidents during his time as a producer.

www.smh.com.au

I think there's a few points Josh is missing from this.

Like why are there 26 charges laid and how they came about.

And the fact he did the same shit to high school children.

The ones involving adults are likely unsavoury, but the one involving a child is the one which will bury him if true.

Police will always lay as many charges as they can knowing full well many end up getting dropped. The number is for the media. The actual claims behind the charges is where we see the severity. We have to wait there.

 

[Kurve]

Jones first court appearance is in two weeks, a total of 26 charges.

The charges include 11 counts of aggravated indecent assault, 11 of assault with act of indecency, two of sexually touching another person, and two of common assault

Court documents reveal more details about historical charges laid against broadcaster Alan Jones

Court documents have shed slightly more light on the historical charges laid against broadcaster Alan Jones, including allegations he touched or fondled complainants' genitals and squeezed bottoms.

www.abc.net.au

 

[faible]

Additional eight charges brought against broadcaster Alan Jones

The 83-year-old has denied all alleged historical offences of indecent assault and sexual touching.

www.abc.net.au

Veteran broadcaster Alan Jones is facing eight additional charges of indecent assault as he fronts court for the first time in Sydney today.

Last month the 83-year-old was charged by the Child Abuse Squad with a total of 26 offences against nine victims.

Presumably that brings the total up to 34 offences now. No mention in the article if it's against additional victims or still the nine.

 

[leon123]

"In an address to the University of Sydney Liberal Club, Jones said Ms Gillard's late father "died of shame" because of his daughter's political "lies"."

Would Alans Jone's father be proud of him?

 

[Kurve]

 

[Festerz]

A reminder that under Section 55F of the NSW Jury Act, NSW Criminal Trials allow majority verdicts under certain circumstances:

1. Where a unanimous verdict has not been reached after the jurors have deliberated for a period of at least 8 hours, and the court considers that reasonable time has been given considering the nature and complexity of the case, and

2. The court is satisfied after questioning one or more of the jurors on oath that it is unlikely a unanimous verdict will be reached.

‘Majority verdict’ is defined as:

• a verdict agreed to by 11 jurors where the jury consists of 12 persons, or
• a verdict agreed to by 10 jurors where the jury consists of 11 persons.

The judge is not to advise the jury of its ability to return a majority verdict before determining that a unanimous verdict is unlikely to be reached.

Suggest his legal team would most likely have advised Jones his chances of success would be maximised by a jury of lay persons rather than trial-by Judge alone, especially given the likely complexity of his case and his enormous, past public appeal in Sydney, especially in the post 50 age bracket.

If and when this gets to trial I would imagine it would be a process over several weeks which would preclude many sections of the eligible juror population from participating due to work and other commitments.

 

[GrayRanga]

Just as well his Lawyer didn't mention jury of his peers.

Where would the Sherriff find 12 closseted gay men all owning prime Sydney real estate and all having various Right Wing Politicians and media infuencers in both NSW and the ACT on speed dial

 

[Sqotty from office works]

Where would the Sherriff find 12 closseted gay men all owning prime Sydney real estate and all having various Right Wing Politicians and media infuencers in both NSW and the ACT on speed dial

In the prayer room at parliament house after 5 pm.



Maybe.

 

[Chicken Treat]

Kobie Thatcher and her dumb 'libertarian' ilk have come out in his defence.

 

[Hojuman]

Yep, guilty.

 

[Puddy]

A reminder that under Section 55F of the NSW Jury Act, NSW Criminal Trials allow majority verdicts under certain circumstances:

1. Where a unanimous verdict has not been reached after the jurors have deliberated for a period of at least 8 hours, and the court considers that reasonable time has been given considering the nature and complexity of the case, and

2. The court is satisfied after questioning one or more of the jurors on oath that it is unlikely a unanimous verdict will be reached.

‘Majority verdict’ is defined as:

• a verdict agreed to by 11 jurors where the jury consists of 12 persons, or
• a verdict agreed to by 10 jurors where the jury consists of 11 persons.

The judge is not to advise the jury of its ability to return a majority verdict before determining that a unanimous verdict is unlikely to be reached.

Suggest his legal team would most likely have advised Jones his chances of success would be maximised by a jury of lay persons rather than trial-by Judge alone, especially given the likely complexity of his case and his enormous, past public appeal in Sydney, especially in the post 50 age bracket.

If and when this gets to trial I would imagine it would be a process over several weeks which would preclude many sections of the eligible juror population from participating due to work and other commitments.

Retirered people who listened to his conservative bullshit over the last couple of decades would be the best jury outcome for Jones