No ‘mafia-style’ threats: VC hero Ben Roberts-Smith

Ben Roberts-Smith has denied sending letters containing “mafia-style” threats to former soldiers.

Ben Roberts-Smith arrives at federal court. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Damian Shaw

Ben Roberts-Smith has denied sending letters containing “mafia-style” threats to former soldiers, including one that said “you have one chance to save yourself”, in a tense day of cross-examination during his defamation case against Nine in which he was also accused of attempting to derail a war crimes inquiry.

On his ninth day in the witness box, Mr Roberts-Smith also denied pouring petrol on his laptop and setting it alight in June 2018 after he was told by former Australian Federal Police commissioner Mick Keelty that his conduct in Afghanistan was the subject of an “open” investigation into alleged war crimes.

On Wednesday, Nicholas Owens, SC, for Nine newspapers, told the Federal Court Mr Roberts-Smith sent threatening letters to a former colleague because he feared the soldier would give damning evidence about his conduct to a war crimes inquiry.

In one letter from June 2018, Mr Owens said, the war hero threatened to “expose” a soldier, Person 18, for his “murderous actions” in Afghanistan, including the soldier’s alleged participation “in the execution of two PUCs” — persons under control of Australian soldiers — at the battle of Tizak, for which Mr Roberts-Smith was awarded the Victoria Cross. “Approach the Inquiry and admit to working with others to concoct lies about other SAS members. You have until the end of the month to tell them the truth,” the letter said. It also stated “you will go down” and “better to take a reprimand than murder charges”, the court heard.

Mr Owens said the war hero sent the letters in an effort to intimidate the soldier into withdrawing evidence he had given to the Inspector-General of the Australian Defence Force. Last year, Major General Paul Brereton found “credible” information that 39 Afghans were unlawfully killed by Australian soldiers.

Mr Roberts-Smith, 42, is suing The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and The Canberra Times, now under separate ownership, over reports published in 2018 that alleged he committed murder during deployments to Afghanistan. He denies the allegations and says the reports portray him as a war criminal.

As part of its truth defence, the newspapers allege he committed or was complicit in six unlawful killings in Afghanistan, including the murder of a man with a prosthetic leg in 2009. They allege the man was unarmed when he was thrown to the ground and then shot 10-15 times.

When an article was published that described “mafia-style” threats against Person 18, Mr Owens said the war hero’s now former wife, Emma Roberts, confronted him. “Your wife said to you, ‘what the f..k are you doing, what’s all this about?’.” But Mr Roberts-Smith denied the conversation ever happened.

Mr Roberts-Smith denied he attempted to frame one of his “enemies” in the SAS, person six, by asking private investigator John McLeod to send a document to former AFP commissioner Andrew Colvin alleging the soldier had smuggled unregistered guns into Afghanistan in 2012. Former senator Nick Xenophon had also received the October 2017 letter, the court heard.

“You made an anonymous complaint about Person Six so that he would become the subject of a police investigation, that’s correct, isn’t it?” Mr Owens asked. “That’s not correct,” Mr Roberts-Smith replied. Mr Roberts-Smith said he believed Person Six had been waging a “whispering campaign” against him. “I didn’t have a grudge, I wanted to make it clear this individual was not to be trusted,” he said.

Mr Owens said Mr Roberts-Smith sent a text to Ms Roberts in December 2017, after WA police raided Person Six’s house, which said: “What happened to (Person Six) will scare the others.”

“At that point, I was not aware of any police investigation,” Mr Roberts-Smith said. “I wasn’t aware of what had happened to Person Six.” Asked why he burnt a laptop with petrol in June 2018, he replied: “When I’m getting rid of a laptop that’s what I do.”

The trial continues.