The full findings into the Victoria Cross recipient's unsuccessful defamation lawsuit are now public, and outline Justice Anthony Besanko's reasoning. Here are five findings you may have missed.
Former SAS soldier Ben Roberts-Smith was "not an honest and reliable" witness in parts of his marathon defamation case against Nine Newspapers, a Federal Court judge has found.
One of the key murder allegations Nine made about Ben Roberts-Smith was that on a mission to Chinartu in 2012, he ordered an Afghan soldier, called Person 12, to shoot a man who was being questioned.During evidence, Mr Roberts-Smith's witnesses suggested Person 12 could not have been present on that mission because he had earlier shot a dog and been stood down from the team.
"The applicant and Person 35 colluded to put forward a false story that Person 12 had been removed or stood down following a shooting incident on 31 July 2012," the judgement reads.Justice Besanko found the letters reflected poorly on the war veteran. "You and others have worked together to spread lies and rumours to the media and the inspector general's inquiry," one letter read.
Justice Besanko's dismissal of the 44-year-old's three defamation cases against the newspapers gives a firm indication about the strength of his evidence."I find that the applicant was not an honest and reliable witness in the many areas I will identify," the judgement read.But elsewhere in the document he says Mr Roberts-Smith lied at times.
"He had sworn three affidavits of discovery and each time has not discovered them. I find that he decided not to discover them."Justice Besanko found some of Ben Robert-Smith's behaviour was "intimidatory, threatening and controlling".
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