Ben Roberts-Smith is used to being held up as a model of bravery and leadership but Australia’s most decorated soldier is now in a battle to save his reputation.
The 40-year-old is the recipient of Australia’s highest military honour, the Victoria Cross, which he was awarded in 2011 for bravery under fire in Afghanistan.
Mr Roberts-Smith spent a lifetime cultivating his physical and mental abilities to the highest levels so that he could serve his country as part of Australia’s elite Special Air Service (SAS) unit.
But new allegations about his behaviour while on duty in Afghanistan are now threatening his legacy. He has vehemently denied the claims and they have yet to be tested in court.
They are the latest allegations to be levelled at Mr Roberts-Smith, who has launched defamation proceedings about previous reports on his behaviour in Afghanistan.
‘I SHALL NEVER FAIL MY BROTHERS’
Born in Perth, Benjamin Roberts-Smith, 40, knew from an early age that he wanted to be in the military.
“For longer than I can remember, that’s all I’d ever wanted to do, all I’d ever imagined myself doing. Leave school, join the army, and fight for my country,” Mr Roberts-Smith said an Australia Day address.
It was perhaps an inevitable choice as Mr Roberts-Smith came from a long line of servicemen. Three of his ancestors fought at Gallipoli and his father, retired Major General Len Roberts-Smith, was in the army reserve before joining the Australian Army Legal Corps, eventually becoming a Justice of the Supreme Court of Western Australia and a commissioner of the Corruption and Crime Commission of Western Australia.
A striking black-and-white photograph of Mr Roberts-Smith held in the National Portrait Gallery collection, shows a tattoo that points to his strong sense of service. Written across his chest are the words “I shall never fail my brothers”.
That motto has served him well across missions in East Timor, Iraq and Afghanistan, for which he has been awarded the Medal of Gallantry for his actions as a patrol scout and sniper; a Victoria Cross for bravery; and a Commendation for Distinguished Service for exceptional leadership, courage, mentoring and reconnaissance in the “most difficult and dangerous of circumstances”.
From 2013, Mr Roberts-Smith served as part of an elite unit of soldiers, having been selected for the SAS.
In his Australia Day address he spoke of how tough the selection process had been.
“SAS selection is the toughest of all entry tests in the Australian Army if not globally,” he said.
“I took leave and spent three solid, solitary months training for the three-week selection course. The training was by far the hardest I’d done in my life, harder than selection. I wasn’t leaving anything to chance.”
He said of the 150 who would arrive for the course, fewer than 30 would finish, and only 15 would be chosen.
“It’s no surprise you have to be exceptionally fit and strong and calm in combat, and you’re pushed off your limits of hunger, fatigue, deprivation, even sanity.
“In the end, the army wants to know what will break you when it matters. When you’ve not eaten for three days and had only an hour’s sleep in 24, whether you’ll pull your weight and get your team over the line, or whether you’ll look after yourself and let someone else carry the can.”
An entry on the Australian War Memorial website describes the circumstances that led up to Mr Roberts-Smith being awarded the Victoria Cross, which followed an operation to hunt for a senior Taliban commander in Afghanistan.
“(Mr Roberts-Smith) took part in an assault against an enemy fortification, exposing his own position in order to draw fire away from members of his patrol who were pinned down,” the entry said.
“Fighting at close range, he stormed two enemy machinegun posts and silenced them.
“His citation in the Commonwealth of Australia Gazette noted that ‘his selfless actions in circumstances of great peril served to enable his patrol to break into the enemy’s defences and to regain the initiative … resulting in a tactical victory’.”
Since leaving the army, Mr Roberts-Smith has become a sought-after keynote and motivational speaker on leadership and other subjects.
In 2017 he became the general manager of Seven Network Queensland and was named Father of the Year in 2013. He was also chair of the National Australia Day Council from 2014 to 2017.
THE ALLEGATIONS
In a report that aired on 60 Minutes last night as part of a joint investigation with The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, Mr Roberts-Smith is accused of kicking a handcuffed Afghan farmer off a cliff near Darwan, before the man was executed by another Australian soldier.
“I categorically deny the allegations made against me in tonight’s 60 Minutes program,” Mr Mr Roberts-Smith said in a statement.
“I am concerned that tonight’s story and the previous publications by the SMH/Age are an attempt to improperly influence the outcome of the (Inspector-General of the Defence Force) inquiry.”
The media organisations have suggested Mr Roberts-Smith’s actions are being investigated by Australian Federal Police detectives, which have sent officers to Afghanistan to collect evidence.
Reports also suggest the Darwan incident is being investigated by NSW Supreme Court Justice Paul Brereton, who is also conducting an inquiry into allegations SAS and Commandos had committed war crimes in Afghanistan between 2006 and 2014.
It follows a confidential defence inquiry in 2016, conducted by Defence Department consultant Dr Samantha Crompvoets, who reportedly found the Australian government faced challenges confronting conduct that goes “well beyond blowing off steam” and involves “problems deeply embedded in the culture” of the elite task force in Afghanistan.
The latest claims against Mr Roberts-Smith follow earlier allegations, which are now the subject of a defamation lawsuit. They include that he helped lead a SAS team that allegedly mistreated unarmed Afghans, that he allegedly bashed an unarmed Afghan and that he bullied two junior soldiers in his patrol.
The previous reports also included allegations that Mr Roberts-Smith was the subject of a separate domestic violence complaint made to police in Canberra.
In his defamation claim Mr Roberts-Smith said the articles published between June and August cast him as a war criminal, a “callous, inhumane” murderer and a domestic violence offender, all of which he says is false and damage his reputation.
In defending the claim, a 60-page-statement has been lodged by The Sydney Morning Herald from a woman at the centre of the alleged extramarital affair with Mr Roberts-Smith, who is married and has twin daughters. She alleges he punched her on the left side of her face during an argument after a dinner at Parliament House in Canberra.
“I have given the police photographic evidence of the black eye I suffered as a result of the assault and a series of Telegram messages from the day after the assault in which Ben is coaching me about how I should explain the black eye to my husband,” the woman said in an affidavit filed to court.
Mr Roberts-Smith has issued a strong denial, telling Sky News the domestic violence allegation would be proven untrue.
“I categorically deny that I assaulted a woman in a Canberra hotel room as alleged by Fairfax (the previous owners of The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age). This allegation will be demonstrated to be untrue when I am given the opportunity to test the allegation in a court hearing,” he said.
“Fairfax has admitted on behalf of the woman making the allegation that she fell down a flight of stairs on the evening in question. It will be proven by CCTV footage and numerous witnesses, that the injuries the woman suffered were sustained in that fall.”
The defamation proceedings will be heard in a six-week trial starting on June 15 next year.
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