A former police officer told Ben Roberts-Smith he was a “weak dog” and warned him “the cover-up is 10 times worse than the offence”, after the decorated veteran allegedly tried to conceal writing threatening letters to a serving SAS soldier, the federal court has heard.
Roberts-Smith asked retired officer John McLeod to take responsibility for the letters, McLeod told the court during dramatic evidence on Wednesday.
A former Queensland police officer turned private investigator and security consultant, McLeod appeared under force of subpoena in Roberts-Smith’s defamation action. Roberts-Smith is suing the Age, the Sydney Morning Herald and the Canberra Times over reports he alleges are defamatory and portray him as committing war crimes, including murder, as well as acts of bullying and domestic violence.
The newspapers are pleading a defence of truth. Roberts-Smith denies any wrongdoing.
McLeod, called as a witness by the newspapers, testified that Roberts-Smith had urged him to take responsibility for sending the letters during a clandestine meeting in Brisbane in 2018. “Just tell them you’re a supporter of mine, and you were sick of the way I was being treated,” Roberts-Smith said, according to McLeod.
McLeod told the court he realised two sealed envelopes he’d previously been given by Roberts-Smith to post to an SAS soldier contained threats, but when discussing the letters, Roberts-Smith denied they were threats.
“They’re not fucking threats, it’s just a touch-up,” Roberts-Smith allegedly told him.
McLeod said he told Roberts-Smith: “If you’ve put me in the frame, if you’ve compromised me, you’d better get me a good lawyer.”
McLeod said he urged Roberts-Smith to admit to sending the letters.
“If you’ve done something stupid, put your hand up for it, because the cover-up is 10 times worse than the offence,” McLeod said he told Roberts-Smith.
Roberts-Smith again urged McLeod to say he’d sent the letters as a supporter of the Victoria Cross winner.
“I said ‘fuck that you weak dog’, and I walked away,” McLeod said. He said he had not spoken to Roberts-Smith since.
McLeod was asked about his employment by Roberts-Smith and his then wife, Emma, and the friendship he developed with the couple over a number of years from 2011.
The court heard Roberts-Smith paid McLeod $1,500 in 2018 to surveil and film a woman with whom Roberts-Smith was having an affair when she visited a termination clinic.
McLeod gave evidence Roberts-Smith also employed him as a “pretend barman” at a party to eavesdrop on employees of Channel Seven where Roberts-Smith was a regional manager.
“He wanted to know what they thought of him,” McLeod told the court.
In 2018, a serving member of the SAS, known in court documents as Person 18, received two letters warning him over evidence he had given as part of the Brereton inquiry into the potential commission of war crimes by Australian soldiers.
“You and others have worked together to spread lies and rumours to the media and the inspector general’s inquiry,” the printed letters said, evidence before the court has shown.
“You have one chance to save yourself. You must approach the inquiry and admit that you have colluded with others to spread lies.
“We are very aware of your many murderous actions over many tours in Afghanistan, including specific dates … just like when you took part in the execution of two persons-under-control at Tizak. You know what you have done and so do we.”
Person 18 is scheduled to give evidence, called by the newspapers, next week.
Last week, Roberts-Smith’s ex-wife, Emma Roberts, told the court that when the letters were made public in June 2018, she confronted her husband.
“What the fuck have you done?,” Roberts said she asked Roberts-Smith.
“He told me he had written the letters, had printed them at the Seven office, had sealed them in the envelopes, addressed them, and had given them to [family friend and occasional employee] John McLeod to post.”
Roberts told the court she had previously seen her husband walk into their house with paper, envelopes and gloves. She said Roberts-Smith had asked her about the PO Box for the SAS regiment in Perth, and whether there were security cameras on post boxes.
In his evidence last year, Roberts-Smith denied any involvement in the letters and said the conversation with his wife never occurred.
“That’s not true,” he told the court.
He told the court during his evidence his ex-wife was “extremely bitter”.
“She has done things along the way that have been detrimental to my family, and particularly to me, because she thinks it will hurt me.”
On Wednesday, McLeod told the court he was given a blue envelope containing four letters by Roberts-Smith at a Brisbane Bunnings store in 2018. He was given scraps of paper with two names, and later given two PO Box addresses.
McLeod posted two letters to Person 18 from a postbox in Tweed Heads, the court heard. He said he did not know their contents. The other two letters – for another soldier known as Person One – were to be thrown out, because Person One was overseas, McLeod said in evidence.
He told the court he did not dispose of those letters, but gave them to his lawyer, who later gave them to the Australian federal police.
McLeod told the court that the day the existence of the letters was reported publicly, Roberts-Smith summoned McLeod to a meeting in Milton in Brisbane. When McLeod arrived, Roberts-Smith warned him “no phones, no phones, no phones”.
McLeod said he and Roberts-Smith discussed the letters, with Roberts-Smith urging McLeod to take responsibility for sending them. McLeod refused.
Under cross-examination, McLeod was questioned about his friendship with, and employment by, Roberts-Smith and his wife. The court heard McLeod was employed to do “odd jobs” for the couple, from organising security, picking up dry cleaning, or transporting Roberts-Smith’s medals. McLeod even collected Roberts-Smith’s military uniform after it was thrown out into the rain during his marriage break-up.
After severing contact with the former soldier, McLeod maintained contact with Emma Roberts through her best friend, Danielle Scott.
Bruce McClintock, acting for Roberts-Smith, said McLeod was an “ally” of Scott and Roberts, following the marriage’s demise.
He cited text messages to Scott where McLeod referred to Roberts-Smith as a “prick” and a “psycho”, as demonstration McLeod was hostile to Roberts-Smith.
McLeod admitted: “There’s a degree of frustration and disappointment.”
McLeod was asked whether he had ever spoken to journalists about Roberts-Smith or assisted with media reportage.
“No,” he told the court. “I despise the media.”
The court was shown an episode of 60 Minutes from 2021 that featured clandestine recordings of Roberts-Smith’s voice. McLeod was asked in cross-examination: “do you know how they got into the hands of Channel Nine?”
“No. I have no idea,” he said.
McLeod was cross-examined over extensive text message correspondence with Scott. In the aftermath of the 60 Minutes show being aired, McLeod texted to Scott: “I need to get out of town”. Asked why he felt he needed to leave, McLeod told the court he was worried he might be attacked by supporters of Roberts-Smith: “I was worried about ramifications, being shot in the head.”
McClintock asked him: “Are you seriously suggesting that evidence is true.”
“That I’d be shot in the head, yes.”
McClintock: “It’s a wicked lie isn’t it?”
McLeod: “No.”
McClintock said McLeod “would do anything to destroy Roberts-Smith”, which is why he had come to court to give evidence against him.
“No. I did not want to be here. I had no intention of being here. I was subpoenaed to be here.”
The trial, before Justice Anthony Besanko, continues.
