Ben Roberts-Smith with blonde trainer as he awaits trial decision
Ben Roberts-Smith has been exercising in the park with a blonde trainer as he awaits a decision on how long the lockdown will delay his trial.
EXCLUSIVE: Ben Roberts-Smith has been shopping at Woolies and exercising in the park with a new blonde trainer as he waits for Monday’s decision on whether the Covid-19 lockdown will seriously delay his trial.
The war hero and the trainer did a lunchtime session at Redfern Oval on Saturday, skipping under a bright blue sky.
Asked how he is coping with Sydney’s extended lockdown, the ex-soldier simply told news.com.au: “Training.”
The towering figure has become a familiar sight around the inner southern suburbs of Sydney as the city’s Delta strain outbreak has shut down court hearings of his trial.
Also spotted stocking up at Dan Murphy’s in Alexandria, the 203cm-tall Victoria Cross recipient has happily posed with locals for selfies.
A critical decision about the pressures on trial witnesses and sittings will be made on Monday by Justice Anthony Besanko in a NSW Supreme Court video-link hearing.
Coinciding with Sydney’s Delta outbreak has been the Taliban’s comeback in Afghanistan after the allied troop withdrawal, which could affect the testimony of four Afghan villagers.
Mr Roberts-Smith, who normally resides in Queensland, has been living in southern Sydney following the start in June of his defamation trial against the Nine media group.
Last week Mr Roberts-Smith’s barrister Bruce McClintock, SC, suggested the hearings might have to be moved to Adelaide, or to Perth.
Mr Roberts-Smith is suing Nine media and three journalists for articles published in three newspapers from the second half of 2018.
He says the reports falsely claim he committed multiple war crimes, bullied other soldiers and that he assaulted a women with whom he was having an affair.
RELATED: Covid-19 could force Ben Roberts-Smith trial out of Sydney
Trial witnesses testifying for both sides include SAS soldiers, many of whom live in Western Australia, where currently a “hard border” with NSW is in place.
Other witnesses, including Mr Roberts-Smith’s ex-wife, her schoolfriend Danielle Scott, and the soldier’s ex-mistress Person 17 live interstate and would be subject to quarantine.
Nine media’s lawyers suggested the four Afghan witnesses could travel to Kabul to testify via audio-visual link (AVL) from the office of a local legal firm for up to a week from July 26.
Prior to the current extended lockdown, this was the date when the trial was meant to resume.
However, Mr McClintock said on July 14 that the Sydney courtroom hearing, in which the Afghan witnesses would appear via AVL, had been jeopardised by the latest covid outbreak.
RELATED: ‘You need to stop’: Letter sent to Ben Roberts-Smith revealed
“There has to be an in-person hearing in closed court in Sydney that would involve at least 20 people,” he said.
“We would need eight people at least need and an interpreter. Social distancing would be impossible.
“If one person carries the virus, everyone has to isolate.”
The Afghan testimony is further complicated by the fact the principal Pashto language interpreter will be translating via AVL from Ontario, Canada.
Last week, Mr McClintock said the US lawyer in Kabul, Thomas Kraemer, from whose office the four Afghans would appear, had said the city was “relatively safe”.
He said Mr Kraemer had confirmed “none of the larger cities are in jeopardy” of Taliban attack.
Before the current Covid-19 lockdown, the predicted three-month trial ran for just over three weeks, during which Mr Roberts-Smith spent almost every day in the witness box.
With a brief adjournment as the SAS veteran was tested for Covid-19 after visiting a city gym hot spot, he spent most of his time under cross-examination by Nine’s lawyers.
Nicholas Owens, SC, told Justice Besanko that notwithstanding the length of Sydney’s lockdown, other states and in particular Western Australia tended to delay opening borders even after NSW had relaxed them.
Barristers involved in the Ben Roberts-Smith trial, including one of his lawyers Arthur Moses, SC, are engaged in other proceedings which could clash with this trial if its timetable is drawn out.
Mr Moses will cross-examine the 21 SAS soldiers and former comrades of Ben Roberts-Smith who are due to give evidence against him.
Mr Roberts-Smith is suing over articles published in three newspapers which then belonged to the now defunct Fairfax Media.
The articles allege he was involved in six war crimes from five Afghanistan missions between 2009 and 2012, as well as a domestic violence assault in March 2018.
The alleged war crimes included claims Mr Roberts-Smith personally murdered unarmed Afghans, was complicit in their murder or allegedly ordering novice soldiers to do so in acts described as “blooding the rookie”.
Mr Roberts-Smith, who denies all of Nine’s claims, told the Federal Court in June: “I’ve never killed an unarmed prisoner.”
The two main incidents Nine alleges are the 2012 shooting at the village of Darwan of a man Nine alleges Mr Roberts-Smith kicked off a cliff, and the 2009 shooting of a man with a prosthetic leg at a Taliban stronghold known as Whiskey 108.
The prosthetic leg was taken by another soldier back to the Australian SAS headquarters at Tarin Kowt, Afghanistan where it was installed in the soldiers’ bar, the Fat Lady’s Arms.
Soldiers were photographed drinking beer from it, although Mr Roberts-Smith said he had never done so.
Mr Roberts-Smith denies the men shot were unarmed or had been disarmed after being made a person under control – known as a PUC – when they were killed.
The original stories Nine published did not name him, but described an tall Australian SAS soldier dubbed Leonidas, a Spartan warrior.
Mr Roberts-Smith has the tattoo of a Spartan helmet on his right ribcage and former Australian War Memorial director Dr Brendan Nelson, told the court he was “instantly recognisable” as the Leonidas figure.
Mr Roberts-Smith is also suing over articles which did name him as having allegedly punched the woman, Person 17, in the face at a Canberra hotel.
He vehemently denies assaulting Person 17, or “any woman” and says she became intoxicated at a function they attended with then Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.
He says Person 17 then fell down stairs and injured her left eye in the fall.
Nine’s defence will also call as a witness John McLeod, the private eye he engaged to tail Person 17 when she claimed to be attending a Brisbane abortion clinic for a pregnancy termination.
Mr Roberts-Smith’s lawyers indicated that if they won their case they would be seeking a record, uncapped sum of damages to compensate for his loss of earnings and a “destroyed” reputation.
Prior to Nine’s campaign of articles, the soldier had forged a career as a public speaker and worked alongside anti-domestic violence advocate Rosie Batty.
Mr Owens for Nine’s defence said the alleged six murders involved “people who have been unambiguously placed under the control of the Australian armed forces”.
He said that “under the Geneva Conventions once a person has been placed under control … no matter if he may be the most brutal, vile member of the Taliban ever, an Australia soldier cannot kill them”.
“To do so is murder,” he said.
Asked by Mr McClintock what his reaction was to being described by Mr Owens as “a mass murderer”, Mr Roberts-Smith said he was both angry and sad.
“I spent my life fighting for my country. I did everything I possibly could to ensure I did it with honour,” he said.
“I listened to that … and it breaks my heart actually. It’s devastating, quite frankly.”
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