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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Amanda Meade and Ben Doherty

Seven paid legal fees for witness in Ben Roberts-Smith’s defamation trial until arrangement was revealed in court

The offices of the Seven Network in Sydney with the bright red ‘7’ logo
The Seven Network claimed last week that the evidence given to the defamation trial about the payments was ‘not correct’. Photograph: Joel Carrett/AAP

The Seven Network was paying the legal fees of several SAS witnesses for Ben Roberts-Smith in his defamation trial until one of them revealed the payments in the federal court, contradicting Seven’s claim last week that the former soldier’s evidence about the source of the payments was “not correct”.

When the former SAS soldier, known as Person 5, told the court last week that his solicitor and barrister are being paid for by Seven, the network said another arm of the empire owned by Seven West Media chair, Kerry Stokes, was footing the bill.

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