Ben Roberts-Smith gave false evidence, arranged threatening letters and made “unusual” arrangements to pay the legal fees of supportive witnesses, Justice Anthony Besanko has found.
had proven Roberts-Smith was a war criminal who unlawfully killed four unarmed Afghan prisoners and assaulted others on deployments to Afghanistan between 2009 and 2012. Besanko also found the Victoria Cross recipient had bullied a fellow soldier., after publishing a summary of his lengthy judgment on Thursday.
In his judgment on Monday, Besanko said the “combined effect” of evidence of current and former SAS soldiers who implicated Roberts-Smith in the execution of two Afghan prisoners at the Whiskey 108 compound on Easter Sunday 2009, “is ... powerful”. On the other hand, Roberts-Smith “has motives to lie, being a financial motive to support his claim for damages in these proceedings, a motive to restore his reputation which he contends has been destroyed by the publication of the articles and significantly, a motive to resist findings against him which may affect whether further action is taken against him”.
The judge found Roberts-Smith came to an “unusual” arrangement to pay for the legal fees of three of his own SAS witnesses, Persons 5, 11 and 35, both in connection with the defamation proceedings and an inquiry by the Inspector-General of the Defence Force.
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