Ben Roberts-Smith’s former lover threatens to sue ABC program Media Watch for defamation

Ben Roberts-Smith’s former lover has threatened to sue Media Watch, claiming the ABC program defamed her by wrongly implying she leaked a secretly recorded phone call.

Former SAS corporal Ben Roberts-Smith outside the Federal Court in Sydney last week. Picture: Christian Gilles / NewsWire

Ben Roberts-Smith’s former lover has threatened to sue Media Watch, claiming the ABC program defamed her by wrongly implying she leaked a secretly recorded phone call to damage the standing of Nine’s star journalist.

The Australian on Monday reported lawyers for the woman, known as Person 17 for legal reasons, had sent the public broadcaster a concerns notice, which is a precursor to defamation action.

In the notice, solicitor Rebekah Giles reportedly alleges Media Watch host Linton Besser made a “false and seriously defamatory” suggestion Person 17 had leaked the recording, the emergence of which has upended the war veteran’s defamation appeal.

In the recording, first broadcast by Sky News, Nine investigative reporter Nick McKenzie tells Person 17, who had accused Mr Roberts-Smith of domestic violence, he was receiving briefings on the Victoria Cross recipient’s legal strategy “in respect of you”.

While the Federal Court did not find the domestic violence allegations to be true when Mr Roberts-Smith sued Nine and Mr McKenzie for defamation, it did find, on the balance of probabilities, the former SAS corporal had committed war crimes in Afghanistan.

Nine investigative reporter Nick McKenzie outside the Federal Court in Sydney last week. Picture: NewsWire / Max Mason-Hubers

Mr Roberts-Smith is now seeking to reopen his appeal against that decision, arguing Mr McKenzie’s alleged access to his legal strategy in the original trial gave rise to a miscarriage of justice.

On Media Watch in late March, Mr Besser said the public had “heard only the tiniest and surely most damaging snippet from what was clearly a longer conversation”, and that Person 17 had declined to respond to the program’s request for “access to the full tape”.

Media Watch host Linton Besser. Picture: Dallas Kilponen/ABC

Ms Giles reportedly responded in the concerns notice by saying this “unfairly and wrongly impugned the trustworthiness” of Person 17, and asking “what possible motivation Person 17 has, to leak material beneficial to Mr Roberts-Smith, and ultimately detrimental to herself”.

The concerns notice reportedly demands, among other things, that the ABC apologises to Person 17 and acknowledges her “extreme bravery and tenacity”.

Originally published as Ben Roberts-Smith’s former lover threatens to sue ABC program Media Watch for defamation