After months of testimony, witness statements and the scrutiny of tomes of evidence, the trial brought about by Australian soldier, Ben Roberts-Smith has ended today. The ruling from presiding judge, Anthony Besanko, has found he murdered unarmed civilians while serving in the Australian military in Afghanistan.
Journalists Chris Masters, Nick McKenzie and David Wroe, writing for The Canberra Times, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age made allegations in several stories throughout 2018, accusing Roberts-Smith of complicity in the murder of six civilians during his deployment in Afghanistan between 2009 and 2012. The crimes he is accused of include murdering an unarmed man with a prosthetic leg with a machine gun, kicking a handcuffed prisoner off a cliff, and being violent towards some of his fellow comrades.
The former soldier claimed the allegations ruined his life; portraying him as a callous and violent man who had broken the moral and legal rules of war and disgraced his country.
The case brought against the three newspapers by the former SAS corporal has become one of the most costly trials in Australia’s legal and military history — estimated by sources quoted from The Guardian to be around $35m.
What did the judge say?
Justice Besanko found the newspapers proved the allegations they published against Roberts-Smith. This is not a criminal finding of guilt but a determination on the civil standard of the “balance of probabilities”.
The judge said Roberts-Smith kicked a handcuffed prisoner off a cliff in Darwin in 2012, before ordering a subordinate Australian soldier to shoot the injured man dead.
In 2009, Roberts-Smith ordered the execution of an elderly man found hiding in a tunnel as well as a disabled man with a prosthetic leg during the same mission.
Allegations that Roberts-Smith bullied and assaulted his comrades were also ruled proven.
However, Besanko ruled that allegations Roberts-Smith was complicit in further murders in Syahchow and Fasil were not proven. And the allegation that he committed an act of domestic violence in 2018 against a woman with whom he was having an affair was also ruled unproven.
A summary judgement has been published by the federal court, with full reasons set to be published on Monday afternoon.
What happens now that Roberts-Smith has lost?
Now that Roberts-Smith has lost his defamation case, he has millions of dollars in costs to pay. In order to pay for the defamation action, Roberts-Smith took out a loan from his employer, billionaire Seven boss Kerry Stokes. It appears likely he’ll offer his Victoria Cross, which he was awarded in 2011, as collateral.
It also appears likely Roberts-Smith will appeal to the full bench of the federal court.