I’ve been following the defamation case which Corporal Ben Roberts-Smith brought against Australian media, who alleged that he was a war criminal and a bully when deployed in Afghanistan.
His case has been dismissed, he was not defamed, he probably did do what was alleged:
Ben Roberts-Smith VC murdered unarmed civilians while serving in the Australian military in Afghanistan, a federal court judge has found.
Ben Roberts-Smith loses defamation case with judge saying newspapers established truth of murders – The Guardian
Justice Anthony Besanko found that, on the balance of probabilities, Roberts-Smith, Australia’s most decorated living soldier, kicked a handcuffed prisoner off a cliff in Darwan in 2012, before ordering a subordinate Australian soldier to shoot the injured man dead.
From what I can gather, the testimony of Federal Liberal MP (and former SAS Captain) Andrew Hastie seems to have been key:
Assistant defence minister Andrew Hastie has told a court that preserving the Special Air Service regiment requires “coming clean” on the mistakes of the past 15 years, as he declared he was no longer proud of Victorian Cross recipient Ben Roberts-Smith.
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Hastie, who served five years as a captain in the SAS between 2010 and 2015, said it was a “fairly well-established rumour” within the regiment that Roberts-Smith had kicked an unarmed “PUC” (a person under control in military parlance) off a cliff in Afghanistan.
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Hastie was on a mission in October 2012 to Syahchow which the newspapers allege was the site of a “blooding” incident – the practice where a new soldier is initiated into the regiment by being ordered to register their first “kill” on operation, allegedly often of an unarmed prisoner. In their defence claim, the newspapers allege Roberts-Smith ordered another soldier, Person 66, to kill a captive, unarmed Afghan man who’d been taken out into a field.
Hastie, on the ground during that mission, said he remembered Roberts-Smith’s patrol using an interpreter to “tactically question” a number of Afghans up against a wall.
Moving to a different part of the compound, Hastie said he heard the words “shots fired” and “two Ekia” – enemy killed in action – over the troops’ radio, but that he didn’t hear any shots.
He said he later saw Person 66 in the compound at Syahchow “standing slightly off from the rest of the patrol looking nervous”.
He testified he also saw Roberts-Smith again on the mission.
“Mr Roberts-Smith walked past me … and he looked me in the eye and said ‘Just a couple more dead cunts’,” Hastie said.
Hastie was present when Roberts-Smith gave an oral debrief of the mission to senior SAS command. He said Roberts-Smith’s version represented an “alternate universe”.
“The reality described by Mr Roberts-Smith was different to the one in actuality.”
Ben Roberts-Smith defamation trial: Andrew Hastie says he ‘is no longer proud’ of former comrade – The Guardian
- Roberts-Smith murdered an unarmed and defenceless Afghan civilian, Ali Jan, in September 2012 by kicking him off a cliff and procuring the soldiers under his command to shoot him.
- He broke the moral and legal rules of military engagement and is therefore a criminal.
- He disgraced his country, Australia, and the Australian army by his conduct as a member of the SAS in Afghanistan.
- He committed another murder on Easter Sunday, 2009, by pressuring a newly deployed and inexperienced SASR soldier to execute an elderly, unarmed Afghan in order to “blood the rookie”.
- He committed a third murder by machine gunning a man with a prosthetic leg on the Easter Sunday mission.
- He was so callous and inhumane that he took the prosthetic leg back to Australia and encouraged his soldiers to use it as a novelty beer drinking vessel.
- As deputy commander of the 2009 SAS patrol on Easter Sunday, he authorised the execution of an unarmed Afghan by a junior trooper in his patrol.
- He bullied a fellow soldier, Person 1.
- He bashed an unarmed Afghan in the face with his fists and in the stomach with his knee and in so doing alarmed two patrol commanders to the extent that they ordered him to back off.
- As patrol commander in 2012 he authorised the assault of an unarmed Afghan, who was being held in custody and posed no threat.
- He assaulted an unarmed Afghan in 2012.
The guy is clearly a narcissist and a psychopath. If he had just kept his mouth shut, it would have probably all gone away – it certainly wouldn’t be world-wide news like it is now.
So what happens to his VC now? Contrary to common belief, VCs can and have been forfeited. Eight awards have been forfeited to be exact, though after the seventh (Gunner James Collis, awarded for actions in Afghanistan in 1880), King George declared that: “The King feels so strongly that, no matter the crime committed by anyone on whom the VC has been conferred, the decoration should not be forfeited. Even were a VC to be sentenced to be hanged for murder, he should be allowed to wear his VC on the scaffold.” Winston Churchill approved amendments to the rules stating that forfeiture could occur for “treason, cowardice, felony or any infamous crime“.
There is a NZ link to one of the VC forfeitures – Midshipman Edward St John Daniel was awarded one for his actions (in the Royal Navy) in Crimea in 1854. After his forfeiture, he moved to NZ in 1864, where he enlisted as a private in the Taranaki Military Settlers in the Maori Wars. He fought in several skirmishes, and then in 1868 he joined the NZ Armed Constabulary Field Force, setting off to quell a disturbance in Hokita, dying of illness in 1868.
His forfeiture of the VC is quite interesting – he was awarded it as a 19 year-old, for “repeated acts of bravery while serving ashore with the Naval Brigade in the Crimean War of 1854-56.” An admiral said in a speech in 1858 that he doubted that “anything in the annals of chivalry had surpassed the conduct of midshipman Daniel.” But in 1861 he jumped ship in the Mediterranean while under open arrest and awaiting court martial.
His crime which he was being court-martialled for – homosexuality. It was described as “taking indecent liberties” with junior officers. His court martial would have been highly embarrassing for the Royal Navy, so there is speculation that his ability to jump ship and move to NZ was perhaps given a helping had by his service which was spared the ignominy of revealing one of their greatest heroes to have been a homosexual.
But back to CPL Roberts-Smith – if he is ever found guilty by a court (unlikely) of the crimes which he is probably guilty of, he is liable to forfeit the award of his VC. It might go against what King George said in 1920, but legally the provision still exists.
Links to articles about Midshipman Daniel:
No Minister 
Reblogged this on Utopia, you are standing in it!.
Let’s not have another Cardinal George Pell trial by media. You should wait until the matter has been dealt with in the criminal court where the test ‘beyond reasonable doubt’ applies.. All the current hysteria is based on a civil judgment according to the wishy washy ‘balance of probability.’