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Courts / Sydney, NSW

Teen complainant withdrawn from Alan Jones trial, reducing number of alleged victims to five

The Guardian Australia
1 min read Rewritten in plain language

Alan Jones TrialAustralian Media

Changed after publishing · 2 edits
  • the headline was changed: Teen complainant withdrawn from Alan Jones trial, bringing reducing number of alleged victims to five
  • the headline was changed: One Teen complainant withdrawn from Alan Jones trial bringing number of alleged victims to five

Outlets edit stories after they go out, usually without saying so. We keep what we saw the first time.

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  • Court also hears from four people who say they didn’t witness alleged offence against another complainant.
  • The allegation, dating from 2012 and brought by a complainant pseudonymised as F, was withdrawn by the prosecution in a Sydney court on Monday afternoon.
  • Jones still faces 21 charges of indecent assault and sexual touching.
  • M, a former high-profile athlete, told the court he “froze” when publicly kissed by Alan Jones at a sports function, but four people who attended the event have told a court they did not see anything untoward.
  • On Monday, Judge Glenn Walsh expressed his frustration with witnesses of limited probative value being called before court, saying people who could not remember seeing Jones or the complainant at the event were of “little assistance” to the court.

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Court also hears from four people who say they didn’t witness alleged offence against another complainant.

One of Alan Jones’s accusers has had his allegation withdrawn, with one charge of assault with an act of indecency dropped from the former broadcaster’s trial.

The allegation, dating from 2012 and brought by a complainant pseudonymised as F, was withdrawn by the prosecution in a Sydney court on Monday afternoon.

The charge had alleged Jones touched and squeezed the complainant’s bottom, on the outside of his clothing, at a public function in September 2012.

Jones still faces 21 charges of indecent assault and sexual touching.

Jones’s trial, now in its eighth week before Sydney’s Downing Centre local court, has heard evidence from three complainants: C, a former radio station colleague who testified about alleged incidents at work and at a lunch; J, a young athlete supported by Jones who gave evidence about alleged assaults at Jones’s Fitzroy Falls property; and M, a high-profile former athlete who said he was kissed twice without his consent.

M, a former high-profile athlete, told the court he “froze” when publicly kissed by Alan Jones at a sports function, but four people who attended the event have told a court they did not see anything untoward.

The sports star has accused Jones of kissing him without consent more than a decade ago at a sports function attended by hundreds of people.

On Monday, Judge Glenn Walsh expressed his frustration with witnesses of limited probative value being called before court, saying people who could not remember seeing Jones or the complainant at the event were of “little assistance” to the court.

Shortened to 1 minute of reading, this version reads 7.7 on the Niral Score.

You are reading our version, not theirs. This is The Guardian Australia's report shortened to its most important sentences, in plainer words, with verdicts and loaded words taken out. Plain description stays, and so do adjectives that carry a fact, such as "former" or "federal". The reporting, the facts and the quotations are theirs — quotations are never edited — and the indicators beside it measure this version. Hover or tap Adjectives to see every one left in the text.

How outlets headlined it

Each outlet's own headline. Struck through: the loaded words our version leaves out. Plainest first.

  • The Guardian Australia Teen complainant withdrawn from Alan Jones trial, reducing number of alleged victims to five plain
  • The Sydney Morning Herald Number of Alan Jones complainants drops from six to five plain

How this outlet filed it, and how we rewrote it

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Also covered by The Sydney Morning Herald, WAtoday, Brisbane Times, The Age. We hold only their summary of it, not the report, so there is nothing of theirs to measure here.

Outlet Niral ScoreAdjectivesSourcingPoliticalSentimentGenderHappiness
The Guardian Australiaas they published this story 11.7 13 85 0.1 -0.6 1.8 10.8
Mundane Readneutralized from The Guardian Australia 8.5 13 85 0.1 -0.5 0 18.1

Also reported by

33 Australian outlets reported this story. These are the ones we do not read; their headlines are matched to this one automatically, so an occasional match may be a different story.

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