Defamation trial: War hero Ben Roberts-Smith thought life ‘wasn’t worth it’

Ben Roberts-Smith has choked back tears during his defamation case against Nine newspapers as he recalled the fallout of ‘traumatising articles’.

Ben Roberts-Smith arrives at the Supreme Court in Sydney. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Joel Carrett

Ben Roberts-Smith has told the Federal Court he was overcome by waves of anxiety and lay in bed suffering from “heart palpitations” after Nine newspapers published an article alleging he was a war criminal who had broken the “moral and legal rules of military engagement”.

On the seventh day of the war hero’s defamation case against the media giant, Mr Roberts-Smith choked back tears as he recalled trying to defend himself against “cowards” who had attacked “from the shadows” and “crushed” his soul in their effort to destroy his reputation.

Mr Roberts-Smith is suing The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and The Canberra Times over reports published in 2018 that alleged he committed or was complicit in six murders during deployments to Afghanistan between 2009 and 2012.

He denies the allegations.

He is also suing over reports alleging he assaulted a woman – a key witness in the defamation proceedings – at a Canberra hotel in March 2018. The newspapers will defend their reports using the truth defence.

On Wednesday, Mr Roberts-Smith said he believed his “life was over” after the articles were published in June 2018. Shortly after, he said, he asked his now former wife’s friend to “get us some prepaid mobiles” so he could contact former soldiers. “I simply did not trust the media were not trying to intercept my communications or gather derogatory information to use against me,” he said.

Asked by his barrister, Bruce McClintock SC, to describe how he felt when he read the articles, Mr Roberts-Smith said: “Betrayed and humiliated.”

“It’s actually quite traumatising,” he said. “You fight for your country and you come home and somebody attacks you from the shadows like cowards.

“I felt betrayed and humiliated and I say humiliated because everything I’ve ever cared about was serving my country with distinction and honour and my friends and my unit.”

The initial article, which did not name Mr Roberts-Smith, attributed the crimes to a soldier it dubbed “Leonidas”, after the Spartan king he and his comrades were said to idolise.

After it was published, he said he received concerned phone calls from six soldiers, friends of his then wife Emma Roberts, Australian War Memorial director and former Liberal opposition leader Brendan Nelson and Seven chairman Kerry Stokes.

“Everyone was asking me if I was Leonidas,” he said.

As well, the 2m-tall soldier was identifiable as Leonidas because of a “spartan helmet” tattooed on his rib cage and references to his “size and stature”, he said.

Mr Roberts-Smith told the court his life had been derailed by rumours and lies perpetrated by journalists and aided by soldiers jealous of his Victoria Cross award. “These people, using smears from other people that don’t like me, have written articles that suggest I am a war criminal,” he said. “I have had to watch my family’s good name be drawn through the mud for three years.”

As well, he received “four or five” USBs in the mail from an unknown person from mid-2019 until earlier this year. “There were lots of photos of the Fat Lady’s Arms and parties,” he said.

The Fat Lady’s Arms was the bar where a soldier was pictured in a Ku Klux Klan outfit while others drank alcohol from a prosthetic leg taken from a Taliban fighter killed by an Australian soldier in 2009. Other images showed senior SAS officers pretending to engage in sex acts with subordinates.

The hearing continues.

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