Ben Roberts-Smith

Benjamin Roberts-Smith (born 1 November 1978) is an Australian former soldier, who is a recipient of the Victoria Cross for Australia—the highest award for gallantry in battle that can be awarded to a member of the Australian armed forces—who was found in a civil defamation trial to have committed war crimes (including murder) while deployed to Afghanistan. He was awarded a Medal for Gallantry in 2006, the Victoria Cross for Australia in 2011, and a Commendation for Distinguished Service in 2012.

Roberts-Smith joined the Australian Army in 1996 at age eighteen. In 1999, he was deployed twice to East Timor. In 2003, he was selected to serve in the Special Air Service Regiment (SASR).In 2004, Roberts-Smith was a part of operations off Fiji. He was deployed to Iraq in 2005 and 2006. Roberts-Smith was deployed to Afghanistan on six occasions during 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010 and 2012.

After discharge from the Australian Army in 2013, he was granted a scholarship to study business at the University of Queensland. In 2015, he was appointed by Kerry Stokes to be deputy general manager of the regional television network Seven Queensland and later, general manager of Seven Brisbane until temporarily stepping down in 2021 to focus on his defamation action against Nine Entertainment. Following the defamation outcome in 2023, Roberts-Smith resigned from Seven West Media.

In October 2017, Roberts-Smith's conduct in Afghanistan came under scrutiny after reports that he'd tracked down and killed a teenager he suspected had spotted his patrol. In August 2018, he commenced defamation proceedings against the media outlets involved in reporting alleged acts of bullying and war crimes committed by him. In June 2023, Justice Anthony Besanko dismissed his defamation case, ruling that it was proven to the standard required in Australian defamation law that Roberts-Smith murdered four Afghans and had broken the rules of military engagement. An appeal to the Full Court of the Federal Court—heard over ten days beginning on 5 February 2024—was unanimously dismissed on 16 May 2025. Roberts-Smith was ordered to pay the defendants' costs.

Early life, family and education

Roberts-Smith was born on 1 November 1978 in Perth, Western Australia. He is the elder son of Sue and Len Roberts-Smith. Len is a former justice of the Supreme Court of Western Australia, Army Reserve major general and judge advocate general of the Australian Defence Force. Ben's brother, Sam, is an opera singer.

In journalist Nick McKenzie's biography of Roberts-Smith, ''Crossing the Line'', it was alleged that Ben developed a reputation for standing over smaller students at school. He played rugby and basketball in high school, winning the best and fairest in his final year. He graduated from Hale School in 1995.

Military career and honours

Early career

Roberts-Smith enlisted in the Australian Army in 1996 at age eighteen. After completing basic training at Blamey Barracks in Kapooka, he underwent initial employment training at the School of Infantry at Lone Pine Barracks in Singleton; and from there, Roberts-Smith was posted to the 3rd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (3 RAR) in Holsworthy, all in New South Wales. Initially part of a rifle company, he subsequently became a section leader in the Direct Fire Support Weapons Platoon. With 3 RAR, Roberts-Smith was deployed twice to East Timor in 1999, including as part of the International Force East Timor.

After completing the Special Air Service Regiment (SASR) selection course in 2003 and the SASR reinforcement cycle, Roberts-Smith was initially posted to 3 Squadron at Campbell Barracks in Perth. While in 2 Squadron, he was a member of training and assistance teams throughout Southeast Asia. He took part in operations off Fiji in 2004 and was part of personal security detachments in Iraq throughout 2005 and 2006.

Afghanistan

Roberts-Smith was deployed to Afghanistan on six occasions, throughout 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010 and 2012. On 31 May 2006 Roberts-Smith was a scout and sniper in a patrol whose aim was to establish an observation post near the Chora Pass in Uruzgan Province as part of the 2006 Dutch/Australian Offensive. On 2 June, the post became the focus of the Anti-Coalition Militia force's attempts to identify and surround it. In one instance, the militia attempted to outflank the position, and Roberts-Smith was one of two members of the patrol who were required to move out of their secure position and kill the enemy combatants. Following the previous incident, two members of the militia attempted to attack the post from a different position, and he once again killed them.

Roberts-Smith then identified that the post was vulnerable and made the decision to divide the patrol and take a position in which he could more readily utilise his sniper rifle. While separated, he then identified 16 Anti-Coalition Militia advancing towards the post. Roberts-Smith used his rifle to stop their advance while under fire. After being joined by another member of his patrol, he was able to hold off the militia until air support arrived. Roberts-Smith's actions while under "fire and in a precarious position, threatened by a numerically superior force, are testament to his courage, tenacity and sense of duty to his patrol". In 2006, Roberts-Smith was awarded the Medal for Gallantry in recognition of his actions on 2 June. After completing junior leadership training in 2009, he was posted to 2 Squadron as a patrol second-in-command (2IC). On 11 June 2010, at Tizak in the Kandahar Province, Roberts-Smith and other SASR soldiers were on a mission searching for a Taliban commander during the Shah Wali Kot Offensive. Immediately upon helicopter insertion, the soldiers became pinned down by machine gun and rocket-propelled grenade fire from multiple positions. With air support, Roberts-Smith and his patrol were able to move within 70 metres of their opponent positions.

Roberts-Smith and his patrol advanced on the insurgent position but were pinned down by sustained fire 40 metres from their objective. He then spotted a structure from which he was able to get cover from fire. Roberts-Smith approached the position and engaged a grenadier, killing them in the process.

Roberts-Smith's patrol was still pinned down by machine gun fire from three positions. He exposed his position and drew fire away from the rest of his patrol. With fire drawn away from the patrol, Roberts-Smith's commander was able to throw a grenade, which neutralised one of the positions. Disregarding his own safety, Roberts-Smith then stormed the remaining two positions.

For his actions at Tizak he was presented with the Victoria Cross (VC) by the Governor-General of Australia, Quentin Bryce, at a ceremony held at Campbell Barracks on 23 January 2011. After being awarded the VC, he became "Australia's most highly decorated combat soldier from the conflict". During defamation proceedings, the awarding of the VC to Roberts-Smith was questioned, with testimony revealing that multiple current and former SASR members suspected the events justifying the honour may have been fabricated.

In 2012, Roberts-Smith was deployed to a rotation as a patrol commander. He left the full-time army in 2013 at age thirty-five with the rank of corporal, then joining the Army Reserve. A combat uniform Roberts-Smith wore in Afghanistan is displayed in the War Memorial.

On 26 January 2014, Roberts-Smith was awarded the Commendation for Distinguished Service as part of the 2014 Australia Day Honours. The award arose from a 2012 tour of Afghanistan, in which he "distinguished himself as an outstanding junior leader on more than 50 high risk" operations. A 2014 painting of Roberts-Smith, ''Pistol Grip'' by Michael Zavros, hangs in the Australian War Memorial which commissioned it. In 2015, Roberts-Smith departed the Army Reserve. The National Portrait Gallery commissioned a photo by Julian Kingma of Roberts-Smith in 2018.

Corporate career

In October 2013, when Roberts-Smith announced that he was leaving the full-time army, the University of Queensland offered him a scholarship to study a Master of Business Administration, looking to establish a program to support other soldiers in transitioning to a corporate career. Roberts-Smith graduated in December 2016 at age 38 and said, "I joined the army at 18 so I hadn't gone to university for a Bachelor degree and I didn't have the base level of business knowledge because there were many things I just hadn't been exposed to."

In April 2015, Roberts-Smith was appointed by Seven West Media's owner Kerry Stokes to be deputy general manager of regional television for network Seven Queensland. Two months later, he promoted to general manager. When he was first promoted to general manager, some staff joked "that it would have been difficult to find a less qualified person than Roberts-Smith". He also admitted that he was 'shocked' at being offered the position. In April 2016, Roberts-Smith was also made general manager of Seven Brisbane following the resignation of Max Walters.

While at Seven Queensland, Roberts-Smith was recorded expressing disdain for the media business, dislike of fellow Seven executives and incredulity that he was still running Seven Queensland despite being at the centre of a war crimes scandal. He told a colleague that "I'll be frank with you ... I don't really like this industry, to be honest. I don't see myself staying." Roberts-Smith, however, felt indebted to media mogul and Seven owner Kerry Stokes for financing his personal legal actions. It was alleged in February 2022 during defamation proceedings that Roberts-Smith had employed a private investigator, John McLeod, to pose as a barman during a Seven Queensland work event in order to listen to staffers at the event and discern their opinions on Roberts-Smith.

In April 2021, Roberts-Smith temporarily stepped down from Seven Queensland to focus on his defamation action against Nine Entertainment. In June 2023, he resigned from Seven following the case's unsuccessful outcome.

Other roles

From 2014 to 2017, Roberts-Smith was chair of the National Australia Day Council, an Australian Government-owned social enterprise. Separately in 2015, the voices of Roberts-Smith and various others were featured in the song ''Lest We Forget'' with Australian country music singer Lee Kernaghan on the studio album '' Spirit of the Anzacs''.

War crime allegations

In October 2017, actions involving Roberts-Smith came under scrutiny. One controversy concerned the killing of a person, who Roberts-Smith had claimed was a Taliban spotter, during a confrontation in May 2006 at Chora Pass. According to the journalist Chris Masters, two members of the patrol had witnessed a lone Afghan teenager approaching the patrol observation post, leaving shortly thereafter. Although the two operators had decided it was not necessary to engage the Afghan, Roberts-Smith and patrol 2IC Matthew Locke arrived on-scene and the pair "decided to hunt down and shoot dead the two 'enemy' after concluding they had spotted the patrol".

The patrol report had identified only a single Afghan unarmed "spotter", but Roberts-Smith later said that two armed insurgents had approached the position in an oral account provided to the Australian War Memorial. When the inconsistency was raised, Roberts-Smith claimed to have remembered incorrectly.

Following the publication of Masters' book ''No Front Line'' in October 2017, Fairfax Media's Nick McKenzie and the ABC's Dan Oakes covered the story, linking the case to an ongoing inquiry by the Inspector-General of the Australian Defence Force into criminal misconduct on the battlefield by special forces; an inquiry that resulted in the Brereton Report. Responding to the coverage in an interview with ''The Australian'', Roberts-Smith described the scrutiny as " un-Australian". Oakes wrote, "It's not 'un-Australian' to investigate the actions of special forces in Afghanistan".

In June 2018, a joint ABC– Fairfax investigation detailed an assault on the village of Darwan in September 2012 during which a handcuffed man was kicked off a cliff by an Australian special forces soldier nicknamed "Leonidas" after the famed Spartan king. On 6 July 2018, Fairfax Media reported that Roberts-Smith was "one of a small number of soldiers subject to investigation by an inquiry looking into the actions of Australian special forces soldiers in Afghanistan". In August 2018, Fairfax Media reported that Roberts-Smith bullied several of his fellow soldiers and alleged that he had committed domestic violence against a woman he was having an affair with. Roberts-Smith denied these allegations.

In June 2023, ABC reported that it had been alleged that Roberts-Smith directed another SASR soldier to kill an elderly imam during an August 2012 operation in Afghanistan. It has been alleged that this led to the man being dragged from a mosque and killed, despite him being unarmed and a prisoner of the Australians. This incident was among those which the Brereton Report recommended be considered by war crimes investigators.

Investigation

In November 2018, the Australian Federal Police (AFP) announced that they "received a referral to investigate allegations of war crimes committed by Australian soldiers during the Afghanistan conflict". In 2018, former AFP commissioner Mick Keelty informed Roberts-Smith that the AFP had received referrals regarding alleged war crimes. Keelty's disclosure came days after the AFP began a covert operation targeting Roberts-Smith, leading him to start using burner phones to obstruct the police investigation.

The Federal Court of Australia declared in September 2020 that no charges against Roberts-Smith had been laid. In April 2021, the AFP confirmed it was also conducting a probe into allegations that Roberts-Smith had destroyed or buried evidence directly related to the ongoing investigation. The Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions later decided that the original AFP investigation could not lead to a prosecution, because of the likelihood that information it had received from the Brereton inquiry would be inadmissible, due to the Inspector-General's use of special coercive powers to question serving members of the ADF. The abandonment of the probe led to the establishment of a new joint task force with personnel from the Office of the Special Investigator and a new team of AFP investigators to investigate the allegations.

Defamation suit

In response to this series of articles, in January 2019, Roberts-Smith commenced defamation proceedings in the Federal Court against Fairfax Media (a subsidiary of Nine Entertainment) and two journalists, Nick McKenzie and Chris Masters, and a former journalist, David Wroe. Fairfax mounted a truth defence, defended its reporting as " substantially true", detailing a series of six unlawful killings alleged to have been carried out by Roberts-Smith in Afghanistan, including those in Darwan.

Kerry Stokes' private investment company, Australian Capital Equity (ACE), extended Roberts-Smith a line of credit, against which he drew $1.9 million. Stokes and another director of ACE were also on the board of the Australian War Memorial (AWM). Calls were made at the time for Stokes, as then AWM chairman, to stand down over his public and private support for soldiers accused of war crimes in Afghanistan.

In August 2020, it was reported that legal experts had raised concerns about a personal relationship between Roberts-Smith and his defamation lawyer, saying it could constitute unprofessional conduct. News Corp Australia published a photo of Roberts-Smith holding hands with the lawyer, who they reported was visiting him in his new apartment in Brisbane. The lawyer conceded that it was "unwise to spend time with him socially".

On 1 September 2020, Fairfax/Nine Entertainment lawyer Sandy Dawson told the Federal Court that the Australian Federal Police had information, including an eyewitness, that allegedly implicated Roberts-Smith in Afghanistan war crimes. The defamation trial, expected to last for ten weeks, commenced in June 2021 in Sydney. In November 2020, Dawson told the Federal Court that Roberts-Smith and his wife had given inconsistent accounts about the status of their relationship during previous years. In April 2021, ''The Age'' published an article alleging that Roberts-Smith had attempted to cover up the alleged crimes by hiding incriminating images on a USB drive buried in his backyard, which has since been obtained by the Australian Federal Police.

A colleague of Roberts-Smith, referred to as Person 16 (identity legally protected as part of proceedings), told the court in 2022 that Roberts-Smith had shot dead an unarmed Afghan teenage prisoner in 2012, and bragged about it. Several serving members of the SASR spoke at Roberts-Smith's defamation trial regarding bullying and threats made by Roberts-Smith during his service both within Australia and Afghanistan. "Person 1", a serving SASR member, said that Roberts-Smith had stated to him he would "put a bullet in the back of his head" if he didn't improve his performance. Following this, Person 1 was advised by other members to report Roberts-Smith's threat which he did, leading to Roberts-Smith threatening him again, stating "If you're going to make accusations, cunt, you better have some fucking proof." Reports of Roberts-Smith's bullying were also reiterated by Person 43 and Person 10, other serving members of the SASR. Fairfax Media's defence against Roberts-Smith's suit ended in early April 2022 after calling witnesses for eleven weeks. Submissions ended in June 2022 after 110 days of evidence.

Judgment

On 1 June 2023, Justice Anthony Besanko dismissed the defamation case brought by Roberts-Smith. Besanko found that the newspapers on trial, ''The Sydney Morning Herald'', ''The Age'' and ''The Canberra Times'', had established substantial or contextual truth of many of their allegations, including that Roberts-Smith "broke the moral and legal rules of military engagement and is therefore a criminal". As a defamation suit is a civil proceeding, Besanko was required by the Evidence Act 1995 (Cth) to assess the evidence using the civil standard of proof, the balance of probabilities, instead of the criminal standard of proof, beyond reasonable doubt. Due to the gravity of the allegations, Besanko followed the Briginshaw principle, which required stronger evidence than would be necessary for a less serious matter.

Besanko found that four murder allegations against Roberts-Smith had been proven. Besanko found that it was substantially true that:

* during the Whiskey 108 mission in 2009, Roberts-Smith committed murder "by machine gunning a man with a prosthetic leg"; Roberts-Smith later asked other soldiers to drink from the prosthetic leg.
* during the same Whiskey 108 mission Roberts-Smith committed murder "by pressuring a newly deployed and inexperienced SASR soldier to execute an elderly, unarmed Afghan in order to 'blood the rookie'"; and
* during the Darwan mission in September 2012, Roberts-Smith "murdered an unarmed and defenceless Afghan civilian, by kicking him off a cliff and procuring the soldiers under his command to shoot him";
* during the Chinartu mission in October 2012, Roberts-Smith gave the order to another soldier "to shoot an Afghan male who was under detention"; with instructions being given "to an NDS-Wakunish soldier who then shot the Afghan male in circumstances amounting to murder", rendering Roberts-Smith "complicit in and responsible for murder".

It was also ruled that two allegations of murder at Syahchow and Fasil in 2012 were not proven.

Besanko separately found that it was proven that:

* in 2010, Roberts-Smith physically attacked an unarmed Afghan man until two patrol commanders ordered him to stop;
* in 2012, Roberts-Smith assaulted a second unarmed Afghan man and authorised the assault of a third unarmed Afghan man who was being held in custody and did not pose a threat; and
* Roberts-Smith engaged in a "campaign of bullying" and threatened violence against an Australian soldier.

Meanwhile, it was ruled that allegations that Roberts-Smith committed domestic violence and threatened to report another soldier to the International Criminal Court had not been proven, but did not further harm Roberts-Smith's reputation, given the other substantially true allegations, thus establishing contextual truth. Judge Besanko also stated that Roberts-Smith was not a reliable witness due to having an obvious motive to lie. Besanko also stated that he believed that Roberts-Smith had threatened a soldier who gave testimony against him.

On 15 June 2023, Roberts-Smith stated that he was proud of his actions in Afghanistan and would not be apologising. Later in June, he accepted liability for payment of the legal costs of his failed defamation suit against the three newspapers from 17 March 2020. One respondent to the case previously stated that approximately $30 million was spent on successfully defending it. In November 2023, it was ruled that Roberts-Smith should pay approximately ninety-five per cent of the costs incurred by Nine Entertainment from when he began proceedings against them in 2018. In December 2023, Kerry Stokes's private investment company, Australian Capital Equity, was ordered to pay costs.

In 2023, Kim Beazley, Chair of the Australian War Memorial Council, acknowledged "the gravity of the decision in the Ben Roberts-Smith VC MG defamation case and its broader impact on all involved in the Australian community". Beazley added that careful consideration was being given to the additional content and context to be included in collection items on display.

In June 2024, Roberts-Smith attended Government House, Western Australia, to receive the King Charles III Coronation Medal, bestowed by King Charles III on all living Australian recipients of the Victoria Cross. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese commented that the decision to include Roberts-Smith had been made by the Palace and not the Australian government, although they had previously indicated to the palace that they had "no objections" to the making of the awards.

In September 2024 it was reported by ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' that Roberts-Smith had attended a recent Australian Defence Force gala dinner to celebrate the sixtieth anniversary of the Special Air Service Regiment and that some who had served in the special forces found this inappropriate. The same article said that the Office of the Special Investigator could soon bring criminal charges against Roberts-Smith, including further alleged war crimes and other criminal matters.

Appeal

On 11 July 2023, Roberts-Smith filed an appeal against Justice Besanko's judgment to the Full Court of the Federal Court after being granted an extension. Nine Entertainment said it would oppose the appeal. In October, the Federal Court ordered Roberts-Smith to pay almost $1 million in security for costs ahead of an appeal. The Full Court heard Roberts-Smith's appeal over ten days, commencing on 5 February 2024

On 27 March 2025, lawyers for Roberts-Smith filed a interlocutory application with the Federal Court seeking to amend his appeal as a result of a secret recording of a conversation between Nick McKenzie and one of his sources. As part of the application to re-open the appeal, Roberts-Smith's lawyers sought "wide-ranging subpoenas" which Nine Entertainment's lawyers opposed, characterising them as merely a "fishing expedition". On 24 April, Justice Nye Perram denied the majority of Roberts-Smith's subpoenas, allowing only subpoenas for communications between Nick McKenzie's and Nine Entertainment's lawyers, and between Roberts-Smith and a friend of his ex-partner.

On 1 May 2025, the secret recording between McKenzie and a witness known as "Person 17", a former lover of Roberts-Smith, was admitted into evidence. Lawyers for Roberts-Smith told the court that McKenzie was recorded telling "Person 17" that Roberts-Smith's ex-partner and her friend had been "actively briefing us on his legal strategy in respect of you … we anticipated most of it. One or two things now we know." Roberts-Smith argued in court that his ex-partner had accessed his email account and passed on privileged communications to McKenzie.

On 16 May 2025, Roberts-Smith lost his appeal against Besanko's ruling. The Full Court of the Federal Court unanimously found that he was not defamed when Nick McKenzie and Chris Masters published reports that he had committed war crimes in Afghanistan. The court said that "we are unanimously of the opinion that the evidence was sufficiently cogent to support the findings that oberts-Smith… murdered four Afghan men". Roberts-Smith was ordered to pay the respondents' legal costs. The interlocutory application to amend the appeal was also dismissed, with judges saying that the secret recording was part of a much longer discussion and that they could not be confident "that the contents of the recording have not been doctored by removing sections or splicing together different parts of a recorded conversation". Legal costs, for all parties, have been stated to total $30m for the initial trial and $4m for the appeal. On 17 June, Roberts-Smith lodged an application for special leave to appeal in the High Court of Australia.

Personal life

Roberts-Smith met his former wife Emma Groom in 1998, at an army ball in Sydney, when he was 19. She came from a military family. On 6 December 2003, the couple married at the University of Western Australia. Their twin daughters were born in 2010. In 2013, Roberts-Smith was named Australian Father of the Year by The Shepherd Centre, a not-for-profit charitable organisation. Friends of Groom appraised that Roberts-Smith's hands-off parenting was not in tune with him being named father of the year.

On retirement from the army in 2015, Roberts-Smith moved to Queensland with his wife and daughters. In April 2018, Groom discovered that Roberts-Smith had been having an affair after a woman, who was given the pseudonym "Person 17" in the defamation trial, showed up at her house and showed her hundreds of text messages sent by Roberts-Smith. In December 2020, Roberts-Smith's and Groom's divorce was finalised. In January 2022, Roberts-Smith was ordered to pay his ex-wife's legal costs after unsuccessfully trying to sue her in the Federal Court over allegations that she had accessed confidential emails.

See also

* '' Revealed: Ben Roberts-Smith Truth on Trial'', a 2023 Australian documentary film

Footnotes

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Roberts-Smith, Ben
Living people
1978 births
Australian Army soldiers
Australian military personnel of the International Force for East Timor
Australian military personnel of the Iraq War
Australian military personnel of the War in Afghanistan (2001–2021)
Australian recipients of the Victoria Cross
People educated at Hale School
Military personnel from Perth, Western Australia
Recipients of the Commendation for Distinguished Service
Recipients of the Medal for Gallantry
Recipients of the Meritorious Unit Citation
Recipients of the Unit Citation for Gallantry
University of Queensland alumni