Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Oz hero soldier loses war crimes legal fight
EX-SAS man killed prisoners in Afghanistan, judge finds
A DECORATED Australian SAS soldier has lost a defamation court case over claims he killed unarmed prisoners in Afghanistan.
Ben Roberts-smith was honoured with the Victoria Cross and met the late Queen at Buckingham Palace.
But a judge found allegations by newspapers that he committed war crimes were substantially true.
One allegation in the articles, which were published in 2018, claimed the former special forces man killed a prisoner who had a prosthetic leg by firing a machine gun into his back in 2009.
He then kept the man’s false leg as a novelty beer drinking vessel.
Another accusation was that Mr Robertssmith kicked a handcuffed farmer off a cliff into a riverbed, where an SAS comrade shot him dead in 2012.
Federal judge Anthony Besanko said the ex-soldier “broke the moral and legal rules of military engagement” and disgraced Australia.
Mr Roberts-smith, 44, denies any wrongdoing. His lawyers blamed “corrosive jealousy” by bitter people within the SAS who they claimed ran a poisonous campaign against him.
After the civil trial ruling in Sydney, Nick Mckenzie, one of the reporters responsible for the articles, praised SAS whistleblowers who testified in the defamation case. He said: “Today is a day of justice for those brave men of the SAS who stood up and told the truth about who Ben Roberts-smith is – a war criminal, a bully and a liar.
“Australia should be proud of those men in the SAS. They are the majority in the SAS, they stood up for what was right and they have been vindicated.”
Mr Roberts-smith sued newspapers including The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and The Canberra Times over their articles. The newspapers proved four of the six murder accusations they made.
Reports of domestic violence allegedly committed by Mr Roberts-smith were found to be unproven.
His lawyer, Arthur Moses, asked for 42 days to consider lodging an appeal to the Full Bench of the Federal Court.
Mr Roberts-smith’s legal costs have been covered by his billionaire employer Kerry Stokes, executive chairman of Seven West Media.
The former corporal, who met the late Queen in 2011, is one of several Australian soldiers under investigation for alleged war crimes in Afghanistan.
Australian Special Air Service Association chair Martin Hamilton-smith described the ruling as a “very disappointing day” for the elite regiment.