A serving SAS soldier has denied in court docket that emails between him and Ben Roberts-Smith – together with marked-up photos of a compound in Afghanistan – demonstrated that they had colluded on their proof a few mission, throughout which the newspaper defendants allege two civilians had been murdered.
The soldier, anonymised within the federal court docket as Individual 29, is a former comrade of Roberts-Smith and the godfather to considered one of his youngsters.
Beneath cross-examination by legal professionals for the newspapers on Thursday, Individual 29 rejected assertions the pair had collaborated to make sure their tales in regards to the mission aligned.
Roberts-Smith, a recipient of the Victoria Cross, is suing the Age, the Sydney Morning Herald and the Canberra Instances for defamation over a collection of studies he alleges are defamatory and painting him as committingwar crimes, together with homicide.
The newspapers are pleading a defence of fact. Roberts-Smith denies any wrongdoing.
The 2009 SAS raid on a compound referred to as Whiskey 108 within the village of Kakarak – an rebel redoubt in Afghanistan’s southern Uruzgan province, has emerged as one of the crucial, and fiercely contested, parts of this trial.
The newspapers allege two males – one with a prosthetic leg and the opposite an aged man – had been found hiding in a tunnel within the compound and had been taken into custody by the Australian troopers earlier than being murdered.
The person with the prosthetic leg was allegedly machine-gunned by Roberts-Smith outdoors the compound, along with his leg later taken as a warfare trophy by one other soldier and used as a ingesting vessel for celebrating troops. The opposite man was allegedly executed by a junior soldier on Roberts-Smith’s orders – a “blooding” of a brand new trooper.
Roberts-Smith and three soldier witnesses, who've appeared on this trial on his behalf, have dismissed that model of occasions as unimaginable, saying no individuals had been discovered contained in the tunnel. 5 different Australian SAS troopers subpoenaed by the newspapers have informed the court docket two males had been discovered hiding within the makeshift tunnel.
Beneath cross-examination by Nicholas Owens SC, appearing for the newspapers, Individual 29 was proven an electronic mail despatched to him by Roberts-Smith in July 2019, days earlier than his define of proof was filed to the court docket.
Hooked up to the e-mail was a picture of Whiskey 108 marked with blue pen. A blue field drawn on the image, Owens mentioned, marked the place an rebel could be mentioned to have been shot by Roberts-Smith.
Owens put it to Individual 29 he was talking “very repeatedly” to Roberts-Smith within the lead as much as submitting his define of proof, and discussing Whiskey 108 so their tales would align.
“I can’t say we had been speaking repeatedly … however the Whiskey 108 mission would have been a subject of dialog,” Individual 29 replied, however denied any collusion.
Owens requested: “I need to put to you once more, if you had a dialog with Mr Roberts-Smith about this doc, it was for the aim of aligning your tales about Whiskey 108 in key respects, do you agree?”
“No, I don’t agree,” Individual 29 replied.
Individual 29 admitted he had failed to offer the e-mail to the court docket regardless of receiving a subpoena calling for all communications between himself and Roberts-Smith referring to Whiskey 108. He mentioned he “habitually” deletes emails.
However Owens accused the soldier of intentionally defying the subpoena.
Individual 29 apologised to the court docket for not comprehensively looking his laptop recordsdata for paperwork referring to the Whiskey 108 mission, insisting his failure to go looking laptop laborious drives was not a deliberate try to cover data.
He conceded he didn't search a tough drive that he owned and that he knew contained footage from the deployment that included the Whiskey 108 mission.
Owens accused him of withholding a video of Whiskey 108 being bombed, which he knew he possessed, as a result of he didn't need the newspapers to have entry to it.
“I put it to you, you intentionally didn’t search laborious drives which you knew is likely to be attentive to that subpoena,” Owens mentioned. “You had been looking for to hide from us data in your possession that is likely to be useful to us and hostile to Mr Roberts-Smith.”
“That’s not appropriate,” Individual 29 mentioned. “As an indication of my diligence, I spent quite a few hours looking these paperwork … that I’ve handed over.
“If I used to be remiss to that degree, I apologise, and I apologise to the court docket, however that was definitely not my intent.”
Individual 29 stays underneath cross-examination. The trial, earlier than justice Anthony Besanko, continues.
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