Decorated Army vet sues Defence Department, officers for $3.75m over ‘wrongful rape prosecution’

EXCLUSIVE: A $3.75m Federal Court lawsuit against the Defence Department and six officers has ben filed by a highly decorated former Army sniper who alleges he was wrongly prosecuted for rape.

A highly decorated former Army sniper is suing the Defence Department and six officers for $3.75m, alleging he was wrongly prosecuted for rape.

In a Federal Court lawsuit, Stewart Alpert, a 15-year veteran who served in East Timor, Iraq and Afghanistan, claims senior officers knew the high-profile prosecution should have been called off due to a lack of evidence, but went ahead because they wanted to avoid damaging the Army’s image.

Mr Alpert also claims that the case, which was heard in the military justice system, should not have gone ahead because the charge sheet used against him wasn’t properly prepared.

Stewart Alpert served in East Timor, Malaysia, Iraq and Afghanistan. Picture: Supplied

He alleges the prosecution caused great injury to his reputation, “significant and considerable mental pain and anguish” and put him to “significant trouble, inconvenience, anxiety and expense”.

He has told the Federal Court he only started to become aware of the problems with the case against him between 2015 and 2017, when he read documents he obtained from the department in a long-running Freedom of Information battle.

“The now-documented basis of the Army’s flawed ‘prosecution’ reveals a culture of expediency, self-interest and arrogance at senior Army levels, with complete disregard for Mr Alpert’s rights and contempt for his ongoing active service within the ADF,” his lawyer, Hopgood Ganim partner Ian Hughes, said.

Lawyer and Hopgood Ganim partner Ian Hughes. Picture: Supplied

A Defence spokesman said: “As the matter is before the courts, it would be inappropriate for Defence to comment.”

Mr Alpert was accused of raping a British woman on Patong Beach in Phuket, Thailand in September 2001, while he was on leave as 21-year-old private.

The charge became public in 2004 when he attempted to have the High Court throw out the charge on the basis he was overseas and on leave at the time.

His challenge failed and the case was sent back into the military justice system – and out of the public eye.

In December 2004, he pleaded not guilty before a court martial and was acquitted after the prosecution failed to tender any evidence in support of the charge.

Documents Mr Alpert obtained under FOI included a statement from a friend of the woman who accused him of rape that contradicted her allegations.

Mr Alpert was accused of raping a British woman on Patong Beach in Phuket, Thailand in September 2001, while he was on leave as 21-year-old private. Picture: Department of Defence

In a signed statement to Defence investigators, the woman claimed Mr Alpert vaginally raped her after another consensual sex act.

But her friend allegedly told investigators the woman known “to exaggerate things on occasions and I believe especially in the light of what she has told people that the incident she has claimed, may not have occurred as she claims”.

According to Mr Alpert’s statement of claim, the documents also included a September 26, 2002, minute in which the officer who first prosecuted the charge against Mr Alpert gave legal advice that one view of the evidence was that “it might be thought too difficult to consider [the woman’s] account is credible, especially given that she acknowledges having been party to some sexual activity with Private Alpert”.

However, he said there was a “need to be seen to be taking action in response” to the woman’s complaint, the claim alleges.

On October 23, 2002, that officer sent his superior a second minute in which he said the complainant “merely wanted to see that her allegations had been taken seriously, but that she didn’t want Private Alpert’s career to be destroyed by what she herself recognises as perhaps, ungentlemanly, as opposed to criminal conduct”.

Patong Beach in Thailand where the rape allegedly took place.

However, the superior officer allegedly pressed ahead with the case.

Mr Alpert told the court that the woman signed instructions on October 22, 2004 in which she said she did not want to be involved with the prosecution.

However, the charges were not dropped and Mr Alpert went to trial on December 7, 2004 and was acquitted.

Mr Alpert continued in the Army, rising from private to corporal before receiving a medical discharge in 2013.