The ex-wife of decorated war veteran Ben Roberts-Smith suspected he had been burying their money in the backyard when she uncovered a secret cache of USBs buried in a child’s lunchbox hidden under a rock, a court has heard.
Over two days of evidence in the federal court, Emma Roberts denied in court she was seeking revenge against the Victoria Cross winner, saying: “I hope Ben survives this nightmare.”
She told the court she believed Roberts-Smith was withdrawing cash from their joint bank accounts during the breakdown of their marriage and secretly burying it in the garden.
“He used to be out in the garden burying things,” she told the court.
Roberts described in court a “very obvious” location hidden underneath a rock and a hose reel where she and a family friend, Danielle Scott, dug with a pitchfork, uncovering a child’s lunchbox with pink clasps. Inside were “four or five” USBs inside clear snaplock bags, she said.
Scott took the USBs and downloaded their contents on to a laptop before the pair re-buried the USBs, the court was told.
“I said ‘I do not want to see what’s on them’,” Roberts told the court.
The court was played a 60 Minutes report from 2021 that detailed the alleged burial of the USBs. Roberts denied she was the source of information to Nine’s journalists.
Roberts-Smith is suing the Age, the Sydney Morning Herald and the Canberra Times for defamation over a series of reports he alleges are defamatory and portray him as committing war crimes, including murder. The newspapers are pleading a defence of truth. Roberts-Smith denies all wrongdoing.
In evidence before court last year, Roberts-Smith said he was anonymously sent a number of USBs containing pictures, video and classified reports from his service in Afghanistan after he asked former colleagues for information that could help his defamation action against three newspapers he alleges defamed him by accusing him of war crimes.
Roberts-Smith said he never buried the USBs, but that they were kept in his desk at the home he had shared with his wife.
The court has previously heard the USBs contained operational reports from SAS missions in southern Afghanistan, drone footage of military operations and classified photographs.
The court heard it included hundreds of photos of SAS soldiers drinking in the Fat Ladies Arms, an unofficial bar at the Australian military base in Afghanistan, including photos of troops (not including Roberts-Smith) drinking from a prosthetic leg allegedly taken from a slain Afghan national, who the newspapers allege was shot by Roberts-Smith. Roberts-Smith says the man was an insurgent killed in the heat of battle.
In court Tuesday, Roberts was cross-examined about access to her husband’s email account. As a director of the company she ran with her husband – RS Group – Roberts told the court she had access to all company emails.
Roberts told the court Scott was also given the password to access the email address by Roberts-Smith to deal with correspondence from Person 17, the woman with whom Roberts-Smith had allegedly been having an affair. Roberts said she and Roberts-Smith did not want any contact with Person 17 after that relationship ended, and wanted a third party to correspond with Scott.
Bruce McClintock, acting for Roberts-Smith, suggested that Scott and Roberts read Roberts-Smith’s emails for months, an act that was “sneaky and dishonest”, an electronic equivalent to “eavesdropping”.
“I don’t believe so,” Roberts said.
Roberts was questioned about her text message correspondence with Scott, comparing, in one exchange, her husband’s career to the Titanic – that is, destined to sink.
“He’s a lying cheating cunt,” Roberts said in another exchange.
She told the court: “I was very frustrated with Ben at the time. I was very frustrated in a bitter divorce.”
McClintock put it to Roberts her evidence was untrue and “an exercise in rank hypocrisy”.
“No.”
Roberts rejected assertions she was motivated by revenge, saying she was appearing because she had been subpoenaed.
“I hope Ben survives this nightmare,” she said.
Roberts was cross-examined over her contacts with journalists, telling the court she had had several meetings with reporters, and their lawyers once she was subpoenaed, but she did not provide information or documents for stories.
The trial, before Justice Anthony Besanko, continues.
