What we know about the ‘obnoxious’ SAS witness testifying for Ben Roberts-Smith
He’s been described as “blustery”, “obnoxious” and is expected to deny doing a dance while foreshadowing a killing. Here’s what we know about the SAS patrol commander testifying for Ben Roberts-Smith.
Police & Courts
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He’s the “obnoxious” SAS commander bizarrely accused of doing a jig before ordering an execution — but the first witness called by Ben Roberts-Smith could be crucial in countering the allegations against the Victoria Cross recipient.
An SAS patrol commander, known only as Person 5, is expected to be called by Roberts-Smith’s legal team as their first witness next week but many clues about his evidence have emerged already.
He denied the newspapers’ claims in testimony last year and the final witness in Nine’s truth defence case stepped down on Thursday.
Person 5, as a commander of the five-man patrol groups, held a senior position on the frontline of the harrowing battles that have played out again and again in the court case.
It’s expected that one battle, 13 years ago exactly, will loom particularly large when Person 5 steps into the witness box on Tuesday.
It was Easter Sunday in 2009 when Australian troops trudged through swampy fields of Kakarak in Uruzgan Province.
They were closing in on a Taliban stronghold codenamed Whiskey 108 that had just been partially levelled by a “500-pounder” American warhead.
Aerial photographs of the insurgent base, before the bomb strike, show rambling white structures and courtyards cut into dense greenery on the edge of a river.
Person 5’s patrol, the court has heard, included Roberts-Smith and a new soldier known as Person 4.
Hours before the assault on Whiskey 108, according to one of Nine’s SAS witnesses, Person 5 had stepped into the SAS quarters with a message.
“Person 5 came to the doorway of our patrol room and he was in a jovial manner, dancing a bit of a jig,” the soldier known as Person 24 told the court.
“He said that we are going to blood the rookie.”
Part of Nine’s claims against Roberts-Smith is that he instructed junior soldiers to shoot captive Afghans so they could get their first kill. He denies that allegation.
The newspapers claim Whiskey 108 was the scene of such an execution.
The SAS patrol were picking through the remains of Whiskey 108, the court has heard, when they discovered an unusual subterranean tunnel beneath the compound.
The tunnel is a point of contention. Nine’s witnesses by and large claim they found Afghan men sheltering in the tunnel who were coaxed out and detained.
Roberts-Smith denies anyone was found underground.
Another patrol commander, Person 43, told the Federal Court he pulled an elderly Afghan from the tunnel and handed him over to Person 5’s patrol for questioning.
Roberts-Smith marched the detainees away, the court heard.
Nine’s first witness, SAS soldier Person 41, told the court he came across Roberts-Smith, “the rookie” Person 4 and an Afghan detainee together in a courtyard moments later.
Person 41 said he was ordered to hand over his rifle’s suppressor to Person 4.
“He turned around, fitting it to his M4 rifle and they started walking to the wall where this male was squatting. I thought; I think I know what’s going to happen here.”
Person 41 told the court he watched Roberts-Smith grab the Afghan by the scruff of his shirt and walked him over to Person 4.
“(Mr Roberts-Smith) then kicked him in the back of the legs behind the knees until he was kneeling down … (Mr Roberts-Smith) pointed to the Afghan and said to Person 4 ‘shoot him’,” Person 41 told the court.
Person 41 told the court he stepped out of the room for about 15 seconds and heard a muffled gunshot.
When he stepped back in, he told the court, Person 4 was standing alone over the dead Afghan. The suppressor was unscrewed and handed back to Person 41 still warm, the court heard.
Person 41 was Nine’s witness but the newspapers’ legal documents claim the blooding was ordered by Person 5, not Mr Roberts-Smith
Nine’s defence says Person 5 was also in the room with the detained Afghan and actually gave the order for Person 4 to shoot.
“(Mr Roberts-Smith) did not say or do anything to encourage Person 5 to withdraw the order or to stop Person 4 following the order,” Nine’s documents say.
“It may be inferred that (Mr Roberts-Smith) was complicit in and approved of the order.”
The “rookie” himself, Person 4, refused to testify about what happened at Whiskey 108 and Person 5 is expected to testify that there was no illegal killing during the raid.
Nine claims a second man was also pulled from the tunnel and grabbed by Roberts-Smith.
Witnesses for Nine claim they saw Roberts-Smith march the man outside the compound, throw him to the ground and shoot him with an “extended burst” of his machine gun.
Roberts-Smith denied that claim and said the man he killed was armed with a rifle.
The court has heard Person 5 was “close” with Roberts-Smith and was leading their patrol a year later during the infamous Battle of Tizak.
Roberts-Smith’s assault against a Taliban machine gun nest ultimately saw him awarded the top military honour — the Victoria Cross.
Some in the SAS have told the court Person 4, the allegedly blooded rookie, had also stormed and silenced the machine guns but was overlooked for the VC for “political” reasons.
Roberts-Smith’s chief critic, a senior officer known as Person 7, told the court Person 5 “bullied” his soldiers to write supporting letters for Roberts-Smith.
That effectively stole credit from the rookie, Person 7 said.
Person 5 received the Star of Gallantry for Tizak, the court has heard.
He was described by Person 7 as a “blustery” and “obnoxious” character.
One of Nine‘s journalists had jotted down “P5 shit bag?” in his notes but Person 7 said that was not his view.
He will be the first of about 20 witnesses to testify for Roberts-Smith.
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