Amid allegations of war crimes, of murder, and of domestic violence, the seemingly inconsequential but bizarre death of a dog has dominated days of evidence in the Ben Roberts-Smith defamation trial.
It has done so because the identity of an Afghan special forces member who shot the stray dog – accidentally injuring an Australian soldier – during an SAS mission in July 2012 could prove critical in an allegation of murder made against Roberts-Smith in the newspapers’ defence.
