Roberts-Smith told soldiers in training exercises to kill Afghan prisoners, court told

War veteran Ben Roberts-Smith told soldiers at training exercises in Australia that Afghan prisoners should be shot dead and discussed placing weapons on prisoners’ bodies to make it appear that they had been killed in combat, the Federal Court has heard.

Person 19, a former SAS soldier, told Mr Roberts-Smith’s defamation case in Sydney on Tuesday that the decorated soldier instructed a patrol member during a training exercise in Perth in 2012 to shoot a soldier who was playing the role of an Afghan detainee. The pretend civilian was kneeling facing a wall and was “not an enemy combatant”, Person 19 said.

Ben Roberts-Smith arrives at the Federal Court in Sydney this week.Credit: James Alcock

“Mr Roberts-Smith said to Person 10, ‘I want you to shoot the PUC,’” Person 19 said, in a reference to the person under the control of Australian forces.

He remembered that command “distinctly” because it was unusual, he told the court, and the soldier playing the role of the Afghan detainee looked “quite surprised” because “no one had expected to hear that phrase”.

He said Person 10 said “bang” or shot the ground to indicate he had shot the person.

Person 19, who was a member of Mr Roberts-Smith’s patrol, said he had participated with him in a separate training exercise in Western Australia with another patrol, led by a soldier dubbed Person 31, which involved a mock compound in Afghanistan.

He said Mr Roberts-Smith and Person 31 were standing while the other soldiers were sitting around them in a semi-circle, and the two men were discussing how soldiers should conduct a “sensitive site exploitation”.

Mr Roberts-Smith said that drones “which can see what’s going on” should be pushed off “to observe another area, so they weren’t observing what was occurring in the compound”, he said.

“At which stage Mr Roberts-Smith said, ‘that’s when any people that we suspected of being enemy combatants, we’d take them into a room and shoot the c---s’,” Person 19 said.

Person 19 said that another soldier, Person 35, and Mr Roberts-Smith “discussed, if the requirement arose, you could put down a throwdown weapon on a body and photograph them and it could be submitted as evidence that they were killed in the conduct of the assault”. Putting a weapon on the body meant they would be “deemed an enemy combatant”, he said.

He said he could not “remember specifically who said what”, but Mr Roberts-Smith and Person 35 were involved in the discussion.

Person 19 told the court he was not deployed to Afghanistan after the training exercises because he was “removed from the patrol as part of a discipline and administration action”.

He said that he had driven home from work one day in a car that had a bag containing body armour and ammunition in it, including two grenades, and his car was stolen that evening. He was sentenced by a military court to 42 days in a Defence Force jail for losing military property.

Person 19 also admitted he was discharged from the Defence Force in 2014 after he signed a false statutory declaration that his girlfriend was not living with him in defence housing, when in fact she had moved back in after a breakup. He said it was a “gross error of judgment” and he understood now how “silly it was”.

Arthur Moses, SC, acting for Mr Roberts-Smith, asked Person 19: “Do you have a view that [Mr Roberts-Smith] was responsible for you being brought under investigation in relation to the ammunition that was found in your vehicle?”

“Not at all,” Person 19 said.

He said he understood the severity of taking ammunition off the military base.

“The Defence Force was right to dismiss you?” Mr Moses said.

“I wasn’t dismissed over the ammunition,” Person 19 said.

He said he was very upset that he lost a 14-year career because of “very silly” errors of judgment.

Person 19 is among a number of current and former soldiers giving evidence for The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Canberra Times in the defamation suit filed against the mastheads by Mr Roberts-Smith.

Mr Roberts-Smith alleges a series of articles published in 2018 portray him as a war criminal. The media outlets are seeking to rely on a defence of truth and allege Mr Roberts-Smith committed or was involved in six murders of Afghans under the control of Australian troops, when they cannot be killed under the rules of engagement.

Mr Roberts-Smith maintains any killings in Afghanistan were carried out lawfully in the heat of battle.

Nicholas Owens, SC, the barrister acting for the newspapers, asked Mr Roberts-Smith last year if he had heard “rumours of patrols in the SAS using throwdowns”, the alleged practice of planting weapons or objects such as radios on a body to justify a killing.

“No,” Mr Roberts-Smith replied.

He said he had become aware of the term “throwdowns” in the context of them allegedly “being used by other nations”.

The trial continues.

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