An elite soldier has denied emails he exchanged with Ben Roberts-Smith showed they had colluded on the evidence they would give at the war veteran's defamation trial to make sure their stories matched up.
Mr Roberts-Smith is suing The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and The Canberra Times newspapers in the Federal Court over a series of articles published in 2018.
The veteran said they contained false allegations of bullying, domestic violence and unlawful killings, two of which are alleged to have occurred during a raid on a Taliban compound dubbed "Whiskey 108" in April 2009.
The newspapers are pleading a defence of truth.
Mr Roberts-Smith insists two men killed at the compound were armed and shot outside the building, within the rules of engagement.
A witness codenamed Person 29, who was at the time a SAS patrol commander, is the third witness called by Mr Roberts-Smith's team to back up the veteran's claim no insurgents surrendered from a secret tunnel discovered within Whiskey 108.
Under cross-examination by publisher Nine Entertainment's barrister, Nicholas Owens SC, Person 29 was on Thursday shown an email sent to him by Mr Roberts-Smith on July 3, 2019, nine days before outlines of evidence were due.
Mr Owens showed Person 29 an attachment to the email: an image of Whiskey 108 with markings on it.
The barrister put it to Person 29 that he was speaking "very regularly" to Mr Roberts-Smith at this time.
"I can't say we were talking regularly … but the Whiskey 108 mission would have been a topic of conversation," Person 29 replied.
Mr Owens suggested a small blue box drawn on the photograph represented the position Mr Roberts-Smith was intending to give as the location where an insurgent was shot by him outside the building.
Person 29 said that was incorrect.
"I want to put to you again, when you had a conversation with Mr Roberts-Smith about this document, it was for the purpose of aligning your stories about Whiskey 108 in key respects, do you agree?" Mr Owens asked
"No, I don't agree," the witness replied.
Person 29 admitted he didn't produce the email despite receiving a subpoena calling for all communications between himself and the veteran related to Whiskey 108.
He said he deleted the email, as he "habitually" deletes emails he does not need.
Person 29 agreed it was possible he had visited Mr Roberts-Smith's Queensland home a few days after the email.
Mr Owens suggested the two sat in the veteran's study looking at Whiskey 108 imagery on a computer as they prepared their proposed evidence.
"No, that's not correct," Person 29 said.
In Nine's court documents, it is alleged two men were taken prisoner in Whiskey 108, and that one was allegedly shot by Mr Roberts-Smith outside the compound, while the second was allegedly shot by a colleague, Person 4, at the direction of his superior, Person 5.
Several of the publisher's witnesses have given evidence of seeing a man or men emerge from the tunnel.
The trial, before Justice Anthony Besanko, continues.
