‘Muddled’ soldier opened fire on woman and children, SAS trial hears

An SAS soldier was “muddled” after shooting at woman and children, a squadmate has told the Ben Roberts-Smith trial.

An SAS soldier was “muddled” after firing his machine gun at a woman and child, before Ben Roberts-Smith warned him he may have committed a war crime, a court has heard.

Mr Roberts-Smith is suing Nine newspapers over a series of articles alleging he committed war crimes in Afghanistan.

The newspapers insist the articles are true and Mr Roberts-Smith denies each of their claims - including that he was a known bully within the elite SAS.

The court has heard allegations Mr Roberts-Smith bullied a subordinate soldier known as Person 10 after a bungled mission into the Chora Valley in 2012.

The valley was infamous - SAS Sergeant Blaine Diddams had been murdered by the Taliban just weeks before Mr Roberts-Smith’s men returned to Chora.

A soldier known as Person 22, the latest witness in the trial, told the court on Friday he was part of Sgt Diddams’ patrol and went back up the valley under the command of Mr Roberts-Smith.

The SAS patrol was approaching its target, the court has heard, when gunfire broke out.

Multiple soldiers have testified about a 2012 mission in the Chora Valley in which Australian troops allegedly fired at each other accidentally.

Person 22 told the court he heard rounds impacting near him, and suspected they were from a suppressed weapon and from the direction of another SAS patrol.

A call went out over the radio about a threat between the patrols, he told the court, and his group began moving to clear the middle ground.

Then Person 10 began firing his Minimi machine gun, Person 22 said, and would not respond as his patrol mates yelled out for target information.

“Person 10 did not break from looking directly to his front and did not try to relate any information to myself or Ben,” Person 22 said.

Person 10’s machine gun jammed and the non-verbal soldier fixed the stoppage and began firing again, Person 22 said.

When the bullets stopped a woman carrying a birdcage, with a child in tow, emerged from the area where Person 10 was firing, the court heard.

Mr Roberts-Smith asked Person 10 what he was shooting at, and if he knew there were other SAS in that direction as well, Person 22 said.

“Person 10 was muddled and trying to say ‘no I wasn’t shooting in the direction where the patrol was located, I was shooting where the women and children appeared’,” Person 22 said.

“It was (said) ‘were you shooting at the patrol or the women and children, because if you were shooting at the women and children that is a war crime’.”

View of Chora in Afghanistan, an infamous valley raided by the SAS.

Person 22 told the court it was clearly a “blue-on-blue” incident, where two Australian patrols had fired at each other.

Back at the base, Person 22 said, the patrol was sitting in a room and Person 10 was “jovial” as Mr Roberts-Smith walked in to the room.

Mr Roberts-Smith punched Person 10 in the face, the court heard.

In April Person 10 told the court he had genuinely believed he was shooting at an enemy to protect his mates.

Person 10 claims Mr Roberts-Smith “threatened” to report the junior soldier to the International Criminal Court for shooting at the civilians unless he wrote, in a report, that he was mistakenly shooting at the other SAS patrol.

“He threatened to report me to The Hague unless I wrote in my report that I was firing at the other patrol - essentially the blue on blue,” Person 10 told the court in evidence.

Mr Roberts-Smith’s defamation trial, against Nine newspapers, is coming to an end of evidence in the Federal Court.

Mr Roberts-Smith’s lawyers denied that threat.

The soldier previously told the court he was made the scapegoat for the nearly catastrophic mission.

Person 10 was ultimately removed from the SAS as his performance slipped following mental health battles after Chora.

He told the court he had accepted his failures and moved on - but stood by his decision to shoot at Chora.

Originally published as ‘Muddled’ soldier opened fire on woman and children, SAS trial hears