Former Victoria Labor politician Adem Somyurek has hit Nine with a defamation lawsuit over a 60 Minutes segment and two articles that appeared in The Age that accused him of corruption and branch stacking and branded him the ‘factional kingpin’ of the Australian Labor Party.
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”.
Decorated war veteran Ben Roberts-Smith is owed record aggravated damages from Fairfax for publishing allegations of war crimes that it knew was false and decimating his reputation, a court has heard.
Former soldiers driven by ‘corrosive jealousy’ of Ben Roberts-Smith plotted to take down the Victoria Cross recipient and were aided by “credulous journalists”, a court has heard.
Racing NSW CEO Peter V’landys AM is challenging a judge’s decision to toss his defamation case against the ABC over a 7:30 segment that revealed racehorses were being killed in violation of industry rules.
The ex-wife of accused war criminal Ben Roberts-Smith may have accessed his email account containing privileged communications with lawyers, a barrister for the former soldier told a judge on the eve of his defamation trial against Nine.