The end
We’re going to wrap up the live blog on the judgment in the Ben Roberts-Smith defamation case here on what has been an historic day.
Justice Anthony Besanko dismissed the defamation case brought against the SMH, the Age and the Canberra Times, and journalists Nick McKenzie and Chris Masters by Australia’s most decorated living soldier.
Besanko found that on the balance of probabilities, Roberts-Smith kicked a handcuffed prisoner off a cliff in Darwan in 2012 before ordering a subordinate Australian soldier to shoot the injured man dead.
And in 2009, Roberts-Smith ordered the killing of an elderly man found hiding in a tunnel in a bombed-out compound codenamed “Whiskey 108”, as well as murdering a disabled man with a prosthetic leg during the same mission, using a para machine gun.
Besanko ruled that allegations Roberts-Smith was complicit in further murders in Syahchow and Fasil, all in southern Afghanistan in 2012, were not proven, but found the newspapers had proven that Roberts-Smith bullied and assaulted his comrades.
He also ruled the newspapers however had failed to prove their allegation that Roberts-Smith committed an act of domestic violence in 2018 against a woman with whom he was having an affair. Nevertheless the newspapers succeeded on a contextual truth defence and their publication of the allegation did not defame him.
Roberts-Smith has 21 days to appeal, and a hearing on costs has been set for 29 June.
The bill for the years-long trial has been estimated to be upwards of $35m.
The ruling was welcomed by the publishers and journalists, with McKenzie describing the day as a day of justice.
The SAS Association criticised the “trial by media” reporting, while Seven West’s executive chairman, Kerry Stokes, who hired Roberts-Smith and financially supported the legal action with a $2m loan said he was disappointed with the outcome.
Roberts-Smith appears now almost certain to lose his Victoria Cross medal that he surrendered as collateral for the loan.
Updated
The Ben Roberts-Smith v the Media podcast in case you haven’t heard it yet goes through in-depth through the court hearings. You can find all the episodes below.
