Ben Roberts-Smith’s ‘girlfriend’ allegedly turned up at his family home with black eye

War veteran Ben Roberts-Smith’s mistress turned up at his family home in Brisbane with a black eye and spoke to his then-wife and her parents, a friend of the former couple is expected to tell his defamation trial.

Among a tranche of documents released by the Federal Court on Friday are three outlines of evidence expected to be given by witnesses for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald as part of the media outlets’ defence to the defamation action brought against them by the former Special Air Service soldier.

Ben Roberts-Smith leaves the Federal Court in July.Credit: Nick Moir

The trial is not expected to resume until at least November 1, due to an outbreak of COVID-19 in Greater Sydney.

Lawyers acting for the media outlets served the outlines of evidence on Mr Roberts-Smith’s lawyers earlier this year. They said the media outlets anticipated that Danielle Scott, the best friend of Mr Roberts-Smith’s ex-wife Emma Roberts and formerly a close friend of the couple, would give evidence that Ms Roberts called her on April 6, 2018, and said: “Are you sitting down?”

Mr Roberts-Smith’s then wife allegedly told her friend, “I’m standing on my verandah and I’m looking at Ben’s girlfriend.”

According to the outline of evidence, Ms Roberts told her friend that the woman, known as Person 17 in the trial to protect her identity, “had a big black eye”.

“During the phone call Ms Scott had a conversation with [Ms Roberts’ mother] Ms [Christine] Bradley during which Ms Bradley said to Ms Scott words to the effect, ‘I asked her if Ben gave her the black eye and she said no’,” the outline of evidence says. Ms Roberts’ step-father was also present, according to the document.

The woman allegedly told Ms Roberts and her family that she had fallen down a flight of stairs at Parliament House in Canberra. Mr Roberts-Smith has denied hitting the woman, and has told the court he iced her injury and stayed up all night monitoring her condition after she fell down the stairs.

Ms Roberts had initially been expected to be a witness for her ex-husband and to say the couple were separated when he started a relationship with Person 17. However, Ms Roberts now says that is false and Mr Roberts-Smith was pressuring her to lie about his affair.

In text messages released by the court on Friday, Ms Roberts tells Ms Scott “BRS thinks if it hits the press I say we were separated”, followed by an eye-roll emoji.

Mr Roberts-Smith has previously told the court he asked a private investigator, John McLeod, to follow Person 17 to an abortion clinic because he suspected she was lying about being pregnant.

Text messages released by the court on Friday show Mr McLeod texted Mr Roberts-Smith a video in October 2018 and the former soldier replied with an emoji with its tongue sticking out: “Thanks John looking a bit polished for someone who’s supposed to have undertaking [sic] that procedure!”

Mr McLeod is also expected to give evidence in the proceedings.

Mr Roberts-Smith launched separate Federal Court proceedings against his ex-wife days before the defamation proceedings started, relating to the alleged misuse of his confidential or legally privileged information.

His barrister, Arthur Moses, SC, told the court in June that the proceedings against Ms Roberts related to an allegation she had access to her former husband’s email account.

The court heard on Friday that a number of people had access to the account, including a “childhood friend” of Mr Roberts-Smith, who was also his accountant, and one of his lawyers. There was evidence Ms Roberts’ friend Ms Scott had also accessed it, the court heard, but Ms Roberts has said she did not disclose the contents of his account to any person unless she was complying with a subpoena.

Ms Roberts’ solicitor said on Friday that the only inference available from the evidence was that Ms Scott had access to the email account, not that Ms Roberts had allowed her to do so.

But Mr Moses said text messages between Ms Scott and Ms Roberts suggested they were aware of an email in his account. Ms Roberts is expected to provide further evidence about these texts in an affidavit to the court.

Mr Roberts-Smith is suing The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald for defamation over a series of reports in 2018 alleging he was involved in war crimes in Afghanistan and committed an act of domestic violence against Person 17. He denies all wrongdoing. The media outlets are seeking to rely on a defence of truth.

The Morning Edition newsletter is our guide to the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up here.