Ben Roberts-Smith ran an “aggressive intimidation campaign” against witnesses giving evidence to a government war crimes inquiry, a former comrade has told the federal court.
The soldier, anonymised before the court as Person 7, also gave evidence Roberts-Smith repeatedly punched and kicked a “terrified” unarmed Afghan prisoner “who posed no threat whatsoever”; bullied other Australian soldiers; and made threats he would “choke a man to death with my bare hands”.
Person 7 told the court that, shortly before their first mission on a 2012 deployment – in the days after a comrade had been killed – Roberts-Smith said to him: “Hey mate, I’m going to talk the talk, I want you to make sure I walk the walk. Before this trip’s over I’m going to choke a man to death with my bare hands, I’m going to watch the life drain out of his eyes.”
Person 7, a still-serving SAS veteran of more than a quarter of a century in the Australian military, and who deployed 11 times to Afghanistan with the SAS, gave wide-ranging evidence about special forces operations over more than a decade. He told the court he had raised allegations of war crimes committed by Roberts-Smith with SAS senior command as long ago as 2013.
Roberts-Smith, a recipient of the Victoria Cross and one of Australia’s most decorated soldiers, is suing the Age, the Sydney Morning Herald and the Canberra Times for defamation over a series of reports he alleges portray him as committing war crimes, including murder.
The newspapers are pleading a defence of truth. Roberts-Smith denies all wrongdoing.
Person 7 was subpoenaed to appear as a witness for the newspapers.
In 2015, the Inspector General of the Australian Defence Force conducted an inquiry into allegations of potential war crimes by Australian special forces. That inquiry, the Brereton inquiry, reported in 2020.
Soldiers appearing in this defamation proceeding are not permitted to discuss their appearance or evidence before any other inquiry.
Person 7 said in 2017 and 2018 he believed Roberts-Smith “conducted an aggressive intimidation campaign of witnesses” who had given evidence to the defence inquiry. Person 7 said at least two comrades received threatening letters he believed to be from Roberts-Smith, and another soldier told him he had been personally pressured by Roberts-Smith to change his testimony.
Person 7 said another SAS soldier had his house raided by police after a tipoff on a firearms allegation for which no evidence was found.
“RS was disparaging soldiers who were speaking out and speaking up,” Person 7 said, telling the court Roberts-Smith had condemned those soldiers as “cowards” who were jealous, “bitter and twisted” over his decorations.
Person 7 said that motivated him to agree to speak to 60 Minutes about what he had witnessed in Afghanistan: “To be a voice from within.”
He said he did not have permission from the military and knew he was breaching defence protocol about speaking to the media. In court on Wednesday, he sought, and was granted, a certificate against self-incrimination on that evidence.
Person 7 said he, and other senior soldiers within the SAS, raised issues with the regimental command as early as 2013 about allegations of war crimes being committed by Australian soldiers, about instances of bullying within the SAS, and the erroneous awarding of decorations, including “questions” over Roberts-Smith’s Victoria Cross.
“At one point the RSM [Regimental Sergeant Major] said to me, ‘what are you hoping to get out of this?’. I said ‘it’s not what I want to get out of this, it’s what needs to be done’.”
Person 7 said in July 2012, he and Roberts-Smith were in the troops’ “ready room” preparing their equipment for battle. Days earlier, SAS Sergeant Blaine Diddams, who was part of the outgoing deployment, had been killed. Person 7 said Roberts-Smith said to him, unprompted: “Hey mate, I’m going to talk the talk, I want you to make sure I walk the walk. Before this trip’s over I’m going to choke a man to death with my bare hands, I’m going to watch the life drain out of his eyes.”
Person 7 said he replied: “We’ve got to switch on here RS. We go ‘out the gate’ (of the Australian’s Tarin Kowt base) in a few days.”
In his evidence to the court last year, Roberts-Smith denied making the comment and dismissed the allegation as “ridiculous”.
“He’s got a flair for the dramatic,” he said of Person 7.
“That is not how I speak. I never have and I never will.”
Person 7 told the court he served alongside Roberts-Smith on a 2010 mission to Deh Rafshan area in Uruzgan province, targeting a “medium value” Taliban leader.
During the mission, as Australian troops secured a compound, Person 7 said he and another soldier found an unarmed man sitting in the corner of a room. As the Australian soldiers approached him, the man rolled onto his side and “started to make a whimpering-type sound”. Person 7 told the court “this bloke was in serious fear, I couldn’t prise him from the foetal position he had gone into”.
“In my assessment he was extremely scared, he posed no threat whatsoever.”
He said he wanted to give the man “a moment to calm down” before they tried again to detain him.
“At that point, BRS [Roberts-Smith] walked into the room, walked past us, then delivered three to four quickfire punches into the side of the Afghan’s head – then two knees to the Afghan’s chest or stomach area.
“I yelled ‘woah, woah, woah, what are you doing? We’re looking after this. Get out of here’.”
“RS left the room, he didn’t say anything.”
Person 7 told the court Roberts-Smith was wearing kevlar gloves when he assaulted the man, and he saw the man’s face beginning to swell up.
In another incident, in 2012, Person 7 said he saw Roberts-Smith repeatedly “jumper-punch” an Afghan man who had been detained, while a small girl, “aged three or four” watched on crying. Person 7 said he asked Roberts-Smith why he was assaulting the man, and Roberts-Smith allegedly replied the man had “hesitated” when Roberts-Smith had asked the man if the girl was his daughter and what her name was.
Person 7 said Roberts-Smith told him: “He’s a fucking bad cunt.”
Person 7 also told the court Roberts-Smith had bullied fellow Australian soldiers who he regarded as “cowards” or not up to the standards of an SAS soldier. Person 7 said Roberts-Smith repeatedly denigrated some soldiers, and sought to have them removed from service, or taken off deployments.
During an extensive cross-examination, Arthurs Moses SC, acting for Roberts-Smith, put it to Person 7 he was “consumed by hatred” for the VC winner, and had spent years trying to besmirch his reputation.
“I don’t hate RS whatever,” Person 7 said.
“Do you accept you were engaged in character assassination of Mr Roberts-Smith?” Moses asked.
“Everything I said was based on personal experience I’d had with him.”
Person 7 fought alongside Roberts-Smith at Tizak in 2010, the battle for which Roberts-Smith was awarded the VC.
Person 7 told the court he did not consider Roberts-Smith “a hero”, and said: “I formed the opinion that he did not deserve the Victoria Cross”.
Roberts-Smith, in his evidence, denied ever bullying comrades and allegations that he assaulted any prisoners, or committed war crimes.
“I spent my life fighting for my country and I did everything I possibly could to ensure I did it with honour,” he told the court last year. Roberts-Smith said the allegations against him were “false”, “baseless” and “completely without any foundation in truth”.
Person 7 remains in the witness box. The trial, before Justice Anthony Besanko, continues.
