War hero Ben Roberts-Smith hits back at bombshell report

Ben Roberts-Smith accuses Nine of trying to intimidate him into not proceeding with a defamation suit.

Ben Roberts-Smith in a photo with a soldier drinking from the prosthetic leg of a killed Afghan man. Picture: 60 Minutes

Ben Roberts-Smith has accused Nine Entertainment of attempting to intimidate him “into not proceeding” with a defamation suit against the company and its star investigative reporter Nick McKenzie.

Nine’s 60 Minutes program on Sunday reported Mr Roberts-Smith, one of the country’s most decorated veterans, buried in his backyard evidence of depraved conduct by Special Air Services Regiment soldiers instead of handing it over to war crimes investigators.

The images — first published by The Sydney Morning Herald – show one soldier at the Fat Ladies Arms, a makeshift on-base bar, dressed in a Ku Klux Klan outfit and others drinking alcohol from a prosthetic leg taken from a Taliban fighter killed by an Australian soldier in 2009.

Other images show senior SAS officers pretending to engage in sex acts with subordinates.

Mr Roberts-Smith said the allegations were “not supported by any evidence filed by Mr McKenzie and Nine in what has been an extensive pre-trial process”.

The Australian Federal Police has told Ben Roberts-Smith it has ‘eyewitness accounts’ implicating him in alleged war crimes in Afghanistan.

“Mr McKenzie has chosen not to give evidence in support of the allegations he has made against Mr Roberts-Smith repeatedly over the past three years,” he said in a statement.

“The allegations aired this evening are baseless.

“These allegations are not supported by any evidence filed by Mr McKenzie and Nine in what has been an extensive pre-trial process.

“These allegations were not put to Mr Roberts-Smith prior to being broadcast on 60 Minutes and published in the Nine newspapers.

“Mr Roberts-Smith denies that he has engaged in any unlawful conduct and he will not be intimidated by Mr McKenzie or Nine into not continuing with the Federal Court proceedings against them.”

The images, 60 Minutes reported, were stored on USB drives buried in a garden.

Mr Roberts-Smith is engaged in a high-profile defamation action against Nine Entertainment after the company — then Fairfax Media — published a series of ­stories alleging the Victoria Cross recipient murdered an unarmed Afghan civilian by kicking him off a cliff.

Nine has argued that the allegations are substantially true.

A soldier wearing a Ku Klux Klan costume holds a burning cross at a party attended by Ben Roberts-Smith in footage aired on 60 Minutes.

Australian Special Forces soldiers are now accused of murdering 39 Afghan civilians and prisoners and of “blooding” new recruits by forcing them to shoot unarmed detainees.

That was the conclusion of a four-year investigation by NSW Supreme Court judge Paul Brereton that found “credible information” that up to 25 soldiers were involved in — and covered up — alleged war crimes.

In recordings published by 60 Minutes on Sunday, Mr Roberts-Smith appears to praise Seven West Media chairman Kerry Stokes for financing him and his fight to “destroy” his enemies.

“There’s no f..king way I’d be able to keep paying what I’m paying for until Kerry got into it,” Mr Roberts-Smith is heard saying in one recording. “That’s why now they’re shitting themselves because they realise he’s prepared to run his bank down to do it.

“I probably won’t leave the fold now … I think I’m indebted a little bit now to Kerry. Bottom line, I’d be fed without him … we’ve certainly had those conversations already.”

Mr Roberts-Smith was hired by Mr Stokes to run his company’s operation in Queensland.

The Australian Federal Police has told Mr Roberts-Smith it has “eyewitness accounts” implicating him in alleged war crimes in Afghanistan, Nine’s lawyers have told the Federal Court.