Ben Roberts-Smith has been accused of “inventing stories” to conceal facts that would support publisher Fairfax’s version of events concerning war crimes allegedly committed by the former SAS soldier in Afghanistan.
Google has lost its challenge to a ruling that it pay a Melbourne gangland lawyer $40,000 for the results of an internet search that included a link to a defamatory article, with an appeals court affirming the search engine giant was a publisher of the results.
Accused war criminal Ben Roberts-Smith has told a court it was “more than reasonable” for him to assume an unarmed Afghan man was a hostile insurgent because he saw another soldier shoot at the man first.
The High Court has denied a request from former senator David Leyonhjelm to challenge a ruling ordering him to pay $120,000 to Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young for defaming her with “crass” and “obviously sexist” comments made in a series of interviews in 2018.
Ben Roberts-Smith used burner phones to call SAS colleagues after growing fearful that members of the media were listening into his phone calls after a series of articles were published in 2018 that accused him of war crimes and domestic violence, a court has heard.
Former SAS soldier Ben Roberts-Smith has told a court that he hired a private investigator to find out whether a woman who has accused him of domestic violence had an abortion and to obtain the home addresses of six SAS soldiers set to give evidence in his defamation trial.
Christian Porter and silk Sue Chrysanthou have been ordered to foot the legal bill of a friend of the woman who accused Porter of rape, after she succeeded in having the barrister removed from defamation proceedings the former attorney-general brought against the ABC.
War veteran Ben Roberts-Smith has said that while he was proud to have received the Victoria Cross for his actions at the 2010 battle of Tizak in Afghanistan, winning the award “put a target” on his back, with fellow soldiers seeking to undermine those they saw as tall poppies.
Ben Roberts-Smith took the stand on Thursday after publishers accused of defaming him detailed how the war veteran allegedly murdered six civilians and engaged in a cover up campaign, with the soldier saying he was “devastated” by the allegations.
News publisher Fairfax has been accused of attempts to intimidate Ben Roberts-Smith’s lawyer in contempt of court by publishing inaccurate media reports that the solicitor is in a romantic relationship with the former soldier, after a judge said the reports had made him “uncomfortable”.