60 Minutes’ Beirut cameraman pursues compensation from Nine insurer

Tortured for 72 hours in a Lebanese jail after a failed child rescue/abduction in 2016, cameraman Ben Williamson is battling with Nine’s insurer for compensation, Annette Sharp reveals.

Five years after 60 Minutes’ disastrous Beirut child rescue/abduction story landed four crew members in a Lebanon jail, the cameraman charged over the incident, along with presenter Tara Brown and a producer and sound technician, is fighting a compensation claim with Nine’s insurer after being stricken with PTSD.

Ben Williamson said he was stripped, hit with rifle butts and essentially tortured for 72 hours after being separated from other crew members following their arrest in Beirut in 2016 for collaborating with a former soldier in a botched attempt to reunite Australian mum Sally Faulkner with her two children.

Former Nine reporter David Hardaker this month reported, via industry website Crikey, that Nine’s insurer GIO had refused to pay Williamson’s work injury compensation claim, citing his failure to lodge it within a three-year window.

Williamson has been off work for three years after suffering panic attacks when he returned to work after the Beirut debacle.

60 Minutes cameraman Ben Williamson is suffering from PTSD and is seeking compensation.

His wife Cara this month said: “Nine should take responsibility.”

GIO initially found there was no negligence by Nine regarding a project that had been signed off on by two Nine EPs, the outgoing Tom Malone and the incoming Kirsty Thomson (also chief of staff) who was later identified by a Lebanese court as being primarily responsible for
the incident.

Last week Nine had a sudden change of heart concerning Williamson’s plight, saying it would request GIO expedite the compensation claim.

Nine “takes the welfare of employees seriously”, it said in a prepared statement.