ABC accused of ‘grubby revenge attack’ after publishing nude images of Afghanistan veteran

Radio host Ben Fordham has accused the ABC of publishing naked photos of an Afghanistan veteran in a “vile revenge attack”.

Radio host Ben Fordham has accused the national broadcaster of publishing naked photos of an Afghanistan veteran in a “revenge attack” after he demanded the retraction of an article alleging his platoon committed war crimes.

On Sunday, the ABC reported that retired SAS officer Heston Russell had sold pornographic images on OnlyFans while fundraising for a veterans’ charity.

The article included pixelated naked images of Mr Russell, whom the ABC alleged had “misled” the Swiss 8 charity about the explicit nature of the fundraising, and had handed over less than a third of the money he claimed to have raised.

Fordham slammed the article as a “revolting, grubby attack”.

“The ABC is hellbent on destroying Heston Russell,” the 2GB host said on Monday.

“That’s because the former commando has been exposing the ABC’s mistakes. The ABC has been caught with its pants down, so in response they show nude photos of Heston Russell. How grubby can you get? It’s got nothing to do with the substance of this issue. This is about a group of soldiers accused of a war crime.”

Mr Russell, who plans to run for federal parliament under his Australian Values Party, has been locked in a battle with the ABC over an October 2020 article that alleged Australian troops executed an unarmed prisoner because there was not enough room on the helicopter.

The former commander of November Platoon insists alleged 2012 incident simply did not happen and that the ABC story contains numerous “provable lies”.

Nearly 25,000 people have signed a petition organised by Mr Russell calling for an independent inquiry into the article and the conduct of the journalists involved.

ABC management last month agreed to conduct a review into the story.

Heston Russell says his OnlyFans account was not a secret. Picture: Gary Ramage/NCA NewsWire

But the following day, the ABC published another article reporting that the Department of Defence had “confirmed” there was an active criminal investigation into November Platoon.

Several days later, Defence rejected that report.

“Defence has not confirmed there is a current criminal investigation involving November Platoon in Afghanistan in 2012,” a spokesperson said in a statement to The Daily Telegraph. “Defence is not currently conducting an investigation into this matter.”

Fordham said he “couldn’t care less what Heston Russell gets up to in his spare time”.

“I’m not someone who uses OnlyFans, but I’m told that consenting adults exchange images and sometimes a fee is paid,” he said.

“On any other day of the week, this is not a story the ABC would cover. They’ve done so on this occasion because they want to bury Heston Russell. The ABC is trying to smear his credibility, and in their efforts to do so, they’ve published nude photos of Heston Russell. Vile, disgusting stuff.”

He described it as the “kind of thing you’d expect to find in a trashy magazine – it’s a get-square and a revenge attack”.

Fordham accused ABC managing director David Anderson of “presiding over a shameful chapter in public broadcasting”.

“The bottom line is the ABC was busted, caught reporting a story that they couldn’t back up with evidence,” he said.

“So what do they do to the whistleblower? Expose his private photos. Someone bought them off the internet and the ABC publishes them. I mean what’s the biggest crime here? Consenting adults exchanging racy photos, or the national broadcaster accusing our soldiers of executing someone without any evidence to back it up? It is disgraceful stuff.”

He added, “To divert the spotlight from their own poor reporting, they out a bloke who’s fought for his country. All because they don’t want to admit that maybe, just maybe, they got this one wrong. This is where your tax dollars are going, into a grubby ABC dirt unit to expose the private life of a war hero.”

Heston Russell in Afghanistan in 2012.

In a YouTube video responding to the article, Mr Russell conceded there “was not a great relationship” with Swiss 8 but said he had raised $15,000 for the charity through the OnlyFans promotion.

Mr Russell said he had “spoken about previously and fully owned up to” his OnlyFans account.

“This was a self-initiated fundraising activity that I did, there was no agreement prior to,” he said in the video.

“One fascinating reflection I’ve had looking back and looking through some of the correspondence ... is just how much enthusiasm there definitely was from Adrian (Sutter) and the Swiss 8 team when the dollar signs really started rolling in, as the OnlyFans account in its initial stages was really quite successful.”

Swiss 8 chief executive Adrian Sutter told the ABC on Sunday that Mr Russell had promised to raise money by sharing “risqué” content but no “nudity of any kind”.

“Obviously, we’re a veteran-led mental health charity,” he said. “We’re not in the business of selling pornography.”

Asked to respond to Fordham’s remarks, an ABC spokeswoman stood by the OnlyFans article.

“Swiss 8, which is a charity founded and led by Australian combat veterans to support the mental health of veterans, has legitimate concerns about Heston Russell’s activity with the group that they were prepared to put on the public record,” she told news.com.au.

“The photos in question were not private photos. Mr Russell sold them on the internet, purportedly on behalf of Swiss 8. Mr Russell has announced plans to run for federal parliament with his own Australian Values Party and is open to public scrutiny. The ABC judges stories on whether or not they are newsworthy and covers them accordingly.”

It comes as public hearings in the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide continue in Brisbane.

More sessions will be held in Sydney, Wagga Wagga, Townsville and Canberra.

An interim report is due in August, with a final report in June 2023.

Nearly 1300 Australian service men and women have taken their own lives over the past two decades.