‘Bare-faced lie’: Ben Roberts-Smith’s ex-mistress grilled over lewd photo claim

Ben Roberts-Smith’s former lover claims she was approached by a stranger and shown photos of herself and the war hero having sex in a hotel room.

Ben Roberts-Smith is seen leaving the Federal Court in Sydney. Picture NCA Newswire/ Gaye Gerard

Ben Roberts-Smith’s former lover has claimed she was ­approached on a beach by a stranger and shown photos of herself and the war hero having sex up against a window in a hotel room.

The woman, known as Person 17, told the Federal Court on Wednesday that the photos ­appeared to have been taken from outside a Brisbane hotel where the couple had stayed during their affair. She said the mysterious figure demanded she tell Mr Roberts-Smith’s wife Emma about the affair, or the photos would be made public.

In cross examination by Mr Roberts-Smith’s barrister, Bruce McClintock SC, Person 17 repeatedly denied she had invented the whole episode.

Mr Roberts-Smith is suing Nine newspapers over allegations that he committed war crimes in Afghanistan while serving with the SAS and that he punched Person 17 in the face after a function at Parliament House in Canberra in which she embarrassed him in front of dignitaries. Mr Roberts-Smith, a Victoria Cross recipient, denies all the allegations.

On Wednesday Person 17 agreed that she was very drunk that night and that she had told the person she was sitting with at the function that she was having an affair with Mr Roberts-Smith. She denied being so drunk she had to hold the walls to walk steadily, but agreed she had fallen on stairs.

The woman denied concocting evidence that Mr Roberts-Smith punched her in the face after they returned to their hotel and left her with a black eye.

Person 17 was asked about notes made of a visit to the doctor in which she described a lump on her head from falling down the stairs but did not mention that Mr Roberts-Smith had hit her.

Text messages between Ben Roberts-Smith and a woman known only as Person 17.

“The real reason why you didn’t tell the doctor that my ­client had hit you was because he hadn’t, that’s correct, isn’t it?” Mr McClintock asked.

“That’s not correct,” Person 17 replied.

She said she had blamed herself for the incident and was afraid no one would believe her. She didn’t want to make a formal complaint to police because she believed Mr Roberts-Smith would “seek payback”.

Person 17 claimed that a few days after the event she was ­approached while walking on a beach by a stranger and shown two hard copy photos of herself and the war hero having sex in a room at the Milton Hotel in ­Brisbane.

“I was to tell Emma about the affair or the photos would be made public,” she said the man told her.

“The photos were of what looked to be Ben and I up against the – sorry this is really embarrassing – up against the like glass window where we had sex several times.”

Person 17 said she knew which hotel it was “because that was the only location where I had had sex with Ben in that position”.

Mr McClintock showed her copies of a message she had sent to Mr Roberts-Smith later on the same morning the threat was ­alleged made, but did not mention it to him.

Mr McClintock: “Didn’t you think that my client might have a lively interest in the fact that some random gentleman ­approached you on a beach and shows you photographs of him and you having sex?

Person 17: “ I didn’t think that at the time … I didn’t trust him at all. I thought he might have been involved with it.”

Asked why Mr Roberts-Smith would want her to go to his wife or have the photographs becoming public, Person 17 said it was so he could make her out to be “the bad person in the situation”.

“It’s a straight out barefaced lie, isn’t Person 17?” Mr McClintock asked. “It’s not,” the woman replied. Mr McClintock suggested that the couple had never stayed below the 20th floor of the Milton Hotel.

“Did you address your mind to how these photographs had been taken?” he asked.

“Not really at the time, I was just shocked to see them,” the woman replied.

Person 17 agreed she had sought to meet Mr Roberts-Smith the following day at the same hotel without telling him that a previous tryst had been ­allegedly photographed there.