ABC journalist Mark Willacy offered to sit down and talk to Heston Russell about an article he was upset about but the former commando did not take up the offer, the federal court has heard.
Under cross-examination by barrister Sue Chrysanthou SC, Willacy denied he did not want to engage with Russell and said he had made the offer of coffee and a chat when he met the former soldier once in person.
Russell is suing the ABC over two online news articles, a television news item and a radio broadcast published in 2020 and 2021 about the alleged actions in Afghanistan in 2012 of the November platoon, which Russell commanded.
Chrysanthou: “I want to suggest to you that you had closed your mind off to listening to Mr Russell, because you didn’t want to admit that your story was wrong.”
Willacy: “No, as stated when he came to see me at the bookshop, I had offered Mr Russell to come and see me and sit down and have a cup of coffee and he never took an offer. I was prepared at any time to have a chat with him. I couldn’t offer him a live interview. That’s one thing I couldn’t do.”
The court heard Russell had sent an email to the ABC offering to do a live sit-down interview.
In earlier evidence, Willacy said he met Russell in a bookshop in September 2021 when the former commando showed up to a book signing event for Willacy’s Rogue Forces book.
The journalist said he spoke to Russell for 20 minutes but Chrysanthou put to him that it was only five to 10 minutes and that his affidavit about the incident was inaccurate.
Chrysanthou: “I want to suggest to you that when you give evidence that you thought my client filmed the bookstore, you say he was doing it to intimidate you. I want to suggest that that’s not true.”
Willacy said a friend saw Russell filming the event and he assumed it was intimidation, but “it didn’t bother me that much”.
Chrysanthou: “You assume misconduct – is that because that’s your job at ABC investigations?”
Willacy said he attended the event with journalist and academic Peter Greste and his partner and a friend from the SAS.
Chrysanthou: “And I want to suggest to you he spoke to you for about five to 10 minutes to ask you questions about the ‘Josh’ allegation.”
Willacy: “It felt like 20.”
The court heard Russell lodged an editorial complaint about what is referred to in proceedings as the October article three or four weeks after he met Willacy at the bookstore.
In the October article, written by Willacy, Alexandra Blucher and Dan Oakes, it was reported that a US marine named “Josh” said Australian special forces shot and killed a bound Afghan prisoner after being told he would not fit on the US aircraft coming to pick them up.
Willacy has told the court he was given permission to show Josh’s face on television and online but not to reveal his name or location.
On Tuesday the court heard Willacy told Josh that “Murdoch’s people are tabloid bottom feeders” after the Daily Telegraph asked questions about the October article.
ABC reporter Josh Robertson, who is a respondent in the case, was questioned about his motives in reporting on Russell, including a December 2021 article that revealed the veteran misled a veterans’ charity about his use of OnlyFans and handed over less than a third of the money he claimed to have raised.
Robertson said the development that Russell had founded the Australian Values Party and intended to stand for parliament “was the thing that made me think it would be in the public interest to perhaps pursue that story”.
Robertson did not agree with Chrysanthou when she suggested he should have re-investigated the allegations in the October article before using parts of it in a subsequent article about an FOI submission that had been rejected.
Robertson: “No, I don’t agree. I’m a member of a team. I rely on other members of my team. I relied on Willacy on this occasion.”
The hearing, before Justice Michael Lee, continues on Thursday.
