SAS soldiers considered Ben Roberts-Smith ‘arrogant’ and undeserving of Victoria Cross, court told

War veteran Ben Roberts-Smith arrives at the federal court in Sydney on Thursday for his defamation trial against the Age, the Sydney Morning Herald and the Canberra Times. Photograph: Bianca de Marchi/AAP

A serving SAS soldier has told a federal court hearing that fellow troops were openly hostile to Ben Roberts-Smith and believed the gallantry that earned him the Victoria Cross may have been “falsified”.

A former comrade of Roberts-Smith, a still-serving SAS soldier anonymised in court as Person 41, has given two days of evidence about serving alongside the VC recipient in Afghanistan.