Overview
- Peter FitzSimons finished giving sworn evidence on Thursday, telling the Downing Centre Local Court about an October 2019 phone call with the man now identified in court as Complainant C.
- FitzSimons said the caller described unwanted kisses and touching by Alan Jones and that he passed his contemporaneous notes to Sydney Morning Herald investigator Kate McClymont rather than reporting the matter to police because he could not identify the caller.
- Prosecutors rely on those notes and later reporting by McClymont that prompted NSW Police to open Strike Force Bonnefin, which led to Jones’ arrest in November 2024 and to police subpoenas for media material in mid-2026.
- The defence has sought to undermine the provenance and motive of the material by alleging collusion between journalists and highlighting FitzSimons’ publicly stated hostility to Jones, a point FitzSimons conceded in evidence.
- The trial continues at the Downing Centre with legal argument set this week and the next complainant due to give evidence on Monday, a sequence that will test how media sourcing and police subpoenas feed into criminal prosecutions.