Ben Roberts-Smith’s private text messages and conversations with his now ex-wife have been laid bare in his defamation trial.
Under cross-examination, the war hero was quizzed about intimidating letters Nine newspapers alleges he sent to an SAS soldier with “mafia-style threats”.
Nicholas Owens SC, for Nine, told the court Emma Roberts-Smith had lambasted her then-husband following media reports of his allegedly sending the threatening letters.
The court heard Ms Roberts-Smith said to her husband: “What the f*** are you doing. What is this all about”.
Mr Owens then alleged Mr Roberts-Smith admitted he had sent a letter to a soldier, known as Person 18, to which his wife replied, “No more f***ing lies Ben.
“You know they can trace your fingerprints and where this letter was sent.”
Mr Roberts-Smith denied sending the threatening letters and refuted Mr Owens’ assertion that after the conversation he burnt remaining envelopes “in your firepit at home”.
Mr Roberts-Smith did admit burning computer hard drives by pouring petrol on them.
He denied doing so to conceal evidence from the official Inspector General of the Australian Defence Force (IGADF) inquiry into the conduct of Australian troops in Afghanistan.
He also denied “panicking” about the IGADF inquiry might reveal alleged war crimes in Afghanistan.
“If I’m not going to trade in a computer, I’m going to destroy the hard drive,” he said.
“I’ve burned laptops in 2010 and 2012. It’s not anything to do with anything.”
Mr Owens read out an alleged text message exchange between Emma Roberts-Smith and her then-husband in late 2017 about reporting the supposedly criminal activities of another soldier.
Mr Roberts-Smith had claimed the soldier, known as Person 6, had smuggled weapons illegally from Afghanistan to Australia.
Ben Roberts-Smith: “I miss you too.”
Emma Roberts-Smith: “Haha, girls doing okay, I just miss you not here.”
Ben Roberts-Smith: “What happened to (name of soldier who is Person 6) will scare the others.”
Asked by Mr Owens if he had sent this because he knew the Western Australian Police were investigating Person 6 and had raided his home, Mr Roberts-Smith said no.
“I was not aware of any police investigation,” he said.
Mr Roberts-Smith is suing Nine newspapers and three journalists for articles published in three newspapers from the second half of 2018.
He says the reports falsely claim he committed six war crime murders in five missions in Afghanistan, that he bullied other soldiers and that he assaulted a women with whom he was having an affair.
Mr Roberts-Smith was under his fifth day of cross-examination by Nine media lawyers and was being grilled about two letters received by Person 18, who lived in Perth.
One of the letters read, “You have one chance to save yourself.
“You must approach the inquiry and admit that you colluded with others to spread rumours and lies.
“We are very aware of your murderous actions over many tours in Afghanistan.
“We have many witnesses.
“You have participated in the execution of two PUCs. You know what you have done and so do we.”
The letter also threatened that if Person 18 did not admit he had been allegedly colluding with other SAS soldiers against Mr Roberts-Smith and leaking to the media, “you will go down”.
Person 18 had fought alongside Ben Roberts-Smith in patrols in 2009 and 2010, including at the Battle of Tizak after which Mr Roberts-Smith was awarded a Victoria Cross.
Mr Owens accused Mr Roberts-Smith of getting private investigator John McLeod to send the letters, saying the war veteran’s handwriting was on part of the address line.
Mr Roberts-Smith agreed he had written part of the address line, but denied he wrote the threatening letters received by Person 18, or telling Mr McLeod to do so.
He agreed he had spoken with Mr McLeod about contacting a mate of the PI’s in the Australian Federal Police.
But he denied knowing that emails would be sent to the then AFP Commissioner Andrew Colvin and then Senator Nick Xenophon, or that he was seeking revenge against Person 6, who had been speaking with the media about him.
Asked if he had a grudge against Person 6, Mr Roberts-Smith said he “was trying to make it clear this individual was not to be trusted”.
He said he had tried to make Australian Army officials aware of what other soldiers had been leaking to the media, but “I didn’t get a response”.
Around 60 witnesses will testify against him at the 12-week trial, including 21 SAS soldiers, Emma Roberts-Smith and deputy defence minister and SAS veteran, Andrew Hastie.
Former Australian War Memorial director Dr Brendan Nelson and 14 current or former SAS soldiers will give evidence in support of him.
Last week, the war hero was questioned about an incident in which it was alleged by Nine newspapers that he had kicked a man known as Ali Jan off a cliff in 2012 and killed him.
It is Nine’s allegation, which Mr Roberts-Smith rejects, that he murdered the unarmed villager, after interrogating him, and then colluded with fellow soldiers to cover-up an unlawful killing.
Mr Owens claimed the blood stains on the man’s arms suggested he had been cuffed, and claimed wounds to his mouth showed physical trauma.
Mr Owens said a strip of skin on the man’s wrists showed he had been restrained with flexi cuffs before being shot.
“He was wearing flexi-cuffs when he was shot wasn’t he,” Mr Owens asked Mr Roberts-Smith, who replied “no, he was not”.
“You interrogated three men you had found for more than an hour, assaulted those men, eventually killed one of those men?” Mr Owens put to Mr Roberts-Smith, who said, “no, absolutely not”.
Mr Roberts-Smith told the court the man was killed while hiding in a cornfield and was a “spotter” relaying intelligence to the Taliban about the location of Australian soldiers.
In the trial’s first week, Mr Roberts-Smith broke down several times, once while recalling the 2010 Battle of Tizak, for which he awarded the medal for valour, the Victoria Cross.
On the second occasion he broke down, it was recalling discovering that one of the soldiers he had killed in the same battle – of 76 insurgents shot dead during 14 hours of fighting – was a 15-year-old boy.
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Asked by Mr McClintock how he dealt with that fact, Mr Roberts-Smith said “I struggle”.
He was also asked about Mr Owens’ opening statement in week one in which the lawyer called the ex-soldier “a mass murderer”.
Mr Roberts-Smith said he was both sad and “very angry” at accusations of he had executed unarmed Taliban fighters, or men who had been “PUCed”, and were persons under control.
“I spent my life fighting for my country. I did everything I possibly could to ensure I did it with honour,” he said.
“I listened to that … and it breaks my heart actually.”
Ben Roberts-Smith revealed last week that he had secretly tailed his mistress as she faked having a pregnancy termination because he believed she was lying about being pregnant to keep him in their affair.
The war hero said that in February 2018, some months after the woman – known as Person 17 – had threatened to self-harm, she had met up with him to attend a pregnancy termination “appointment”.
The appointment was at Brisbane’s Greenslopes Hospital and he had her surveilled on video by private eye John McLeod, because he believed she wasn’t really having an abortion.
Person 17 later told him that was true, but the pair continued their relationship until March, when they attended a function at Parliament House in Canberra hosted by then prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull.
The court heard the woman had taken a Valium pill and drunk a bottle of wine and after the event had fallen down stairs and injured her left eye.
Mr Roberts-Smith told the court he had cared for the woman who had been “incoherent” and “passed out” in the Hotel Realm.
She later accused him of assaulting her by punching her in the left eye, which Mr Roberts-Smith vehemently denies.
He said the claim of domestic violence assault, which was published in a Nine newspaper article, had seriously damaged him and his family.
“Now I walk down the street, people will look at me and think I hit a woman,” he said.
“I couldn’t protect my kids which is extremely hard to take.
“I was worried about my children physically and emotionally, what someone might say to them, what someone might do to them,” he told the Federal Court.
He said that when the article was published identifying him as having allegedly beaten Person 17, “I started to think my life is over.”
Mr Roberts-Smith said that after media had pursued him in late 2017 and early 2018, he became the subject of “a whispering campaign”.
He was aware former SAS soldiers had made allegations about what had happened in Afghanistan.
“The bottom line is I felt I was being attacked publicly in the press and had no way of defending myself,” he said.
“I wanted to understand how … we’re not allowed to speak to the media. I’m bound by the Secrets Act.”
Mr Roberts-Smith agreed he had asked Mr McLeod to get the home addresses of former unit members, but said he hadn’t used them to intimidate his former comrades.
Asked by Mr McClintock if he had ever sent former unit members threatening letters or caused others to, Mr Roberts-Smith said he hadn’t.
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2021-06-23 07:48:27Z
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