Ben Roberts-Smith

Benjamin Roberts-Smith (born 1 November 1978) is an Australian former soldier in the Special Air Service Regiment (SASR). He is one of Australia's most highly decorated soldiers, having received the Medal for Gallantry, the Victoria Cross for Australia (2011)—the highest award for gallantry in battle that can be awarded to a member of the Australian Defence Force (ADF)—and a Commendation for Distinguished Service (2012). He was widely considered a national hero, but his reputation deteriorated following a 2023 Federal Court ruling in which a judge found that there was enough evidence, according to the standard required in Australian defamation law, to establish that he had murdered four unarmed Afghans and broken the rules of military engagement.

After his discharge in 2013, Roberts-Smith was named Australian Father of the Year, was awarded a scholarship to study business at the University of Queensland and received many other honours. He was appointed by media mogul Kerry Stokes to top executive positions at Seven Queensland and ultimately Seven Brisbane, from which he stepped down in 2021 to focus on his defamation action against Nine Entertainment.

In October 2017, Roberts-Smith's conduct in Afghanistan came under scrutiny after reports emerged that he had killed an unarmed teenager and bullied other soldiers. He commenced defamation proceedings in 2018; however, in June 2023, Justice Anthony Besanko dismissed the case, writing that he had "disgraced his country". In 2025, appeals to the Federal Court of Australia and the High Court of Australia were dismissed and refused in full.

In April 2026, Roberts-Smith was arrested and charged with five counts of the war crime of murder. He was released on bail later that month.

Early life, family and education Roberts-Smith was born on 1 November 1978 in Perth, Western Australia. He is the elder son of Sue and Len Roberts-Smith. His father is a former justice of the Supreme Court of Western Australia, Army Reserve major general and Judge Advocate General of the Australian Defence Force.

In his biography of Roberts-Smith, Crossing the Line, journalist Nick McKenzie alleges that Roberts-Smith developed a reputation for intimidating smaller students at school. He struggled academically, achieving average grades at Perth's Hale School. During his time at Hale , he played both rugby and basketball for the school. In 1995, his final year, the school's first XV rugby team recognised him as its best and fairest player.

Military career and honours Early career Roberts-Smith enlisted in the Australian Army in 1996 at age eighteen. After completing basic training at the Army Recruit Training Centre at Blamey Barracks in Kapooka, he underwent initial employment training at the School of Infantry at Lone Pine Barracks in Singleton; and from there, Roberts-Smith was posted to the 3rd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (3 RAR) in Holsworthy, all in New South Wales. Initially part of a rifle company, he subsequently became a section commander in the Direct Fire Support Weapons Platoon. With 3 RAR and as a part of Rifle Company Butterworth, Roberts-Smith was deployed twice in Malaysia and participated in two operations in East Timor in 1999, including as part of the International Force East Timor.

After completing the Special Air Service Regiment (SASR) selection course in 2003 and the SASR reinforcement cycle, Roberts-Smith was posted to 3 Squadron, SASR at Campbell Barracks in Perth.

Medal for Gallantry On 31 May 2006, Roberts-Smith was a scout and sniper in a patrol deployed during the 2006 Dutch/Australian Offensive. The patrol report had identified only a single Afghan unarmed "spotter", but Roberts-Smith said in an oral account provided to the Australian War Memorial that two armed insurgents had approached the position. Roberts-Smith later wrote to the War Memorial writing "Without the benefit of the patrol report to guide me it would appear I have confused my many engagements and identified two insurgents initially locating our observation post as opposed to one".

Victoria Cross After completing junior leadership training in 2009, Roberts-Smith was posted to 2 Squadron, SASR as a patrol second-in-command (2IC). On 11 June 2010, at Tizak in the Kandahar Province, he and other SASR soldiers were on a mission searching for a Taliban commander during the Shah Wali Kot Offensive. (VC) by the governor-general of Australia, Quentin Bryce, at a ceremony held at Campbell Barracks on 23 January 2011. After being awarded the VC, he became "Australia's most highly decorated combat soldier from the conflict". During defamation proceedings in 2022, Person 41, a serving SASR member, testified that fellow soldiers Person 7 and Person 42 believed the events leading to Roberts-Smith's VC may have been falsified and that he was undeserving of the award. Person 7 and Person 42, who were given pseudonyms for national security reasons, were senior soldiers who appeared in court as witnesses against Roberts-Smith in defamation proceedings. Roberts-Smith was awarded the Commendation for Distinguished Service as part of the 2014 Australia Day Honours on 26 January 2014. The award arose from the 2012 tour of Afghanistan, in which he "distinguished himself as an outstanding junior leader on more than 50 high risk" operations. Roberts-Smith left the Army Reserve in 2015.

Post service career and war crime allegations

The University of Queensland (UQ) offered Roberts-Smith a scholarship to study a Master of Business Administration (MBA) in October 2013, after he announced that he was leaving the full-time army. At this time the university was looking to establish a program to support soldiers to enter corporate roles. In her work, Crompvoets reported serious allegations concerning conduct in Afghanistan between 2009 and 2013. It was alleged to her that during this period, the SASR unlawfully killed thirty-nine Afghan nationals, in incidents characterised as "competition killing" and driven by blood lust.

In April 2015, Roberts-Smith was appointed by Seven West Media's owner Kerry Stokes to be deputy general manager of regional television for Seven Queensland, based in Maroochydore. Two months later, he was promoted to general manager. When he was first promoted to general manager, some staff joked "that it would have been difficult to find a less qualified person than Roberts-Smith". He graduated with his MBA from UQ in December 2016 at age 38 and said, "I joined the army at 18 so I hadn't gone to university for a Bachelor degree and I didn't have the base level of business knowledge because there were many things I just hadn't been exposed to."

In October 2017, journalist Chris Masters published No Front Line, a history of Australian special forces in Afghanistan. The book drew attention to discrepancies between Roberts-Smith's own accounts of a 2006 incident in which he and Matthew Locke killed an Afghan man they suspected of being a Taliban spotter. ABC News journalist Dan Oakes reported on the book, linking it to the ongoing Brereton inquiry. Responding to the publication of Masters's book, Roberts-Smith described it as inaccurate and called the scrutiny of his record "un-Australian". He also said the book was damaging to the legacy of Locke, who had been killed in action.

In June 2018, a joint ABC and Fairfax Media investigation detailed an assault on the village of Darwan in September 2012 during which a handcuffed man was kicked off a cliff by an Australian special forces soldier nicknamed "Leonidas" after the famed Spartan king. Roberts-Smith was identified in later reporting as the soldier previously referred to as "Leonidas". On 6 July 2018, Fairfax Media reported that he was "one of a small number of soldiers subject to investigation by an inquiry looking into the actions of Australian special forces soldiers in Afghanistan". The next month, Fairfax Media reported that Roberts-Smith bullied several of his fellow soldiers and alleged that he had assaulted a woman he was having an affair with. Roberts-Smith denied the bullying and assault allegations.

In response to these 2018 allegations, Roberts-Smith commenced defamation proceedings in the Federal Court against Fairfax Media (a subsidiary of Nine Entertainment) and two Fairfax journalists, Nick McKenzie and Chris Masters, as well as a former Fairfax journalist, David Wroe. Fairfax mounted a truth defence, based on its reporting being "substantially true". As part of this defence, Fairfax detailed a series of six unlawful killings alleged to have been carried out by Roberts-Smith in Afghanistan, including those in Darwan. The defamation trial was labelled by lawyers and media as "the trial of the century".

In November 2018, the Australian Federal Police (AFP) announced that they "received a referral to investigate allegations of war crimes committed by Australian soldiers during the Afghanistan conflict". That same month, former AFP commissioner Mick Keelty informed Roberts-Smith that the AFP had received referrals regarding alleged war crimes. Keelty's disclosure came days after the AFP began a covert operation targeting Roberts-Smith. After learning from Keelty that he was under investigation, Roberts-Smith allegedly began using burner phones to obstruct it. The lawyer conceded that it was "unwise to spend time with him socially".

On 1 September 2020, Fairfax/Nine Entertainment lawyer Sandy Dawson told the Federal Court that the Australian Federal Police had information, including an eyewitness, that allegedly implicated Roberts-Smith in Afghanistan war crimes. The Federal Court of Australia noted later that month that no charges against Roberts-Smith had been laid.

In November 2020, the Federal Court heard that Roberts-Smith had asked his wife to falsely claim they were separated during his affair with a woman referred to in the trial as Person 17, contradicting the couple's earlier public statements. That same month, Kerry Stokes' private investment company, Australian Capital Equity (ACE), extended Roberts-Smith a line of credit to fund his legal action, against which he drew A$1.9 million. Stokes and another director of ACE were also on the board of the Australian War Memorial (AWM). Calls were made at the time for Stokes, as then AWM chairman, to stand down over his public and private support for soldiers accused of war crimes in Afghanistan.

The findings of the Brereton inquiry, the Brereton Report, were published on 19 November 2020. The report recommended that dozens of incidents involving current and former special forces personnel be referred for criminal investigation.

In April 2021, the AFP confirmed it was conducting a probe into allegations that Roberts-Smith had destroyed or buried evidence directly related to the ongoing investigation. An article published that month alleged that Roberts-Smith had attempted to cover up the alleged crimes by hiding incriminating images on a USB drive buried in his backyard, which had since been obtained by the Australian Federal Police. Also in April 2021, Roberts-Smith temporarily stepped down from Seven Queensland to focus on his defamation action against Nine Entertainment.

In June 2021, ABC News reported that 21 current and former SAS soldiers would make an "unprecedented" appearance at court to testify against Roberts-Smith in the defamation trial. The defamation trial, expected to last for ten weeks, commenced that month in Sydney.

An SAS soldier described an incident to the court where he witnessed Roberts-Smith kick a handcuffed farmer (Ali Jan) "in the chest" and made the Afghan fall backwards over a cliff edge with his face hitting a large rock, knocking out a number of his teeth, with Roberts-Smith later ordering his execution with another SAS operator under his command shooting the farmer dead. Other SAS veterans testified that Roberts-Smith machine gunned an already detained and unarmed Afghan with a prosthetic leg in 2009. Evidence from the eyewitnesses corroborated that Roberts-Smith also pressured junior soldiers to execute unarmed prisoners. A colleague of Roberts-Smith, referred to as Person 16, told the court that Roberts-Smith had shot dead an unarmed Afghan teenage prisoner in 2012 and bragged about it.

It was alleged during defamation proceedings in February 2022 that Roberts-Smith had employed a private investigator, John McLeod, to pose as a barman during a Seven Queensland work event to listen to staff at the event and discern their opinions of him.

Several serving members of the SASR provided testimony during the trial regarding bullying and threats made by Roberts-Smith during his service both within Australia and Afghanistan. Person 1, the SASR member whose weapon had jammed during the 2006 battle in the Chora Valley, said that Roberts-Smith had stated he would "put a bullet in the back of his head" if he did not improve his performance. After this, Person 1 was advised by other members to report Roberts-Smith's threat which he did, leading to Roberts-Smith threatening him again, stating: "If you're going to make accusations, cunt, you better have some fucking proof." Reports of Roberts-Smith's bullying were also reiterated by Person 43 and Person 10, also serving members of the SASR. During defamation proceedings that year, Person 41, a serving SASR member, testified that fellow soldiers Person 7 and Person 42 believed the events leading to Roberts-Smith's Victoria Cross may have been falsified and that he was undeserving of the award. Evidence submissions ended in July 2022 after 110 days of information gathering during which 41 witnesses were called. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the soldiers "testified in public and on oath" but, due to national security orders, their identities were suppressed and they were referred to in court using pseudonyms such as Person 1, Person 14 and Person 18. As a defamation suit is a civil proceeding, Besanko was required by the Evidence Act 1995 (Cth) to assess the evidence using the civil standard of proof, the balance of probabilities, instead of the criminal standard of proof, beyond reasonable doubt. Due to the gravity of the allegations, Besanko followed the Briginshaw principle, which required stronger evidence than would be necessary for a less serious matter.

Besanko found that four murder allegations against Roberts-Smith had been proven. The judgment concluded that it was substantially true that: during the Whiskey 108 mission in 2009, Roberts-Smith committed murder "by machine gunning a man with a prosthetic leg". Roberts-Smith later asked other soldiers to drink from the prosthetic leg; during the same Whiskey 108 mission Roberts-Smith committed murder "by pressuring a newly deployed and inexperienced SASR soldier to execute an elderly, unarmed Afghan in order to 'blood the rookie;

It was ruled that two allegations of murder at Syahchow and Fasil in 2012 were not proven. and Roberts-Smith engaged in a "campaign of bullying" and threatened violence against an Australian soldier.

Roberts-Smith resigned from Seven on 2 June 2023, following the case's unsuccessful outcome. Later in June 2023, the ABC reported allegations that he directed another SASR soldier to kill an elderly imam during an August 2012 operation in Afghanistan. It was alleged that this led to the man being dragged from a mosque and killed despite him being unarmed and a prisoner of the Australians. The incident was among those which the Brereton Report recommended be considered by war crimes investigators.

On 15 June 2023, Roberts-Smith stated that he was proud of his actions in Afghanistan and would not be apologising. Later in June, he accepted his liability to pay the legal costs of his failed defamation suit from 17 March 2020 against the three newspapers. Chris Masters, one of the respondents in the case, stated that Nine Entertainment spent approximately $30 million defending it. Beazley added that careful consideration was being given to the additional content and context to be included in collection items on display.

In November 2023, it was ruled that Roberts-Smith should pay approximately ninety-five per cent of the costs incurred by Nine Entertainment from when he began proceedings against them in 2018. In December 2023, Kerry Stokes's private investment company, Australian Capital Equity, was ordered to pay costs.

Appeals (2023–2025) On 11 July 2023, Roberts-Smith filed an appeal against Justice Besanko's judgment to the Full Court of the Federal Court, after the court granted an extension to the standard deadline for lodging it. Nine Entertainment said it would oppose the appeal. Commencing on 5 February 2024, the Full Court heard Roberts-Smith's appeal over ten days.

In June 2024, Roberts-Smith attended Government House, Perth, to receive the King Charles III Coronation Medal from the governor of Western Australia, Chris Dawson, bestowed by King Charles III on all living Australian recipients of the Victoria Cross. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese commented that the decision to include Roberts-Smith had been made by Buckingham Palace and not the Australian government, although they had previously indicated to the palace that they had "no objections" to the making of the awards.

In August 2024, former AFP commissioner Mick Keelty gave up his Order of Australia honour, six years after his 2018 disclosure to Roberts-Smith.

Lawyers for Roberts-Smith filed an interlocutory application with the Federal Court on 27 March 2025, seeking to amend his appeal after a secret recording emerged of Nick McKenzie appearing to say he had been briefed on Roberts-Smith's legal strategy by his ex-partner and her friend, which his lawyers argued may have affected the outcome of the trial. Roberts-Smith's lawyers sought "wide-ranging subpoenas" as part of the application to re-open the appeal, which Nine Entertainment's lawyers opposed, calling them a "fishing expedition". Justice Nye Perram denied the majority of Roberts-Smith's subpoenas, allowing only subpoenas for communications between Nick McKenzie's and Nine Entertainment's lawyers, and between Roberts-Smith and a friend of his ex-partner. In court, Roberts-Smith argued that his ex-partner had accessed his email account and passed on privileged communications to McKenzie.

Roberts-Smith lost his appeal against Besanko's ruling on 16 May 2025. The Full Court of the Federal Court unanimously found that he was not defamed when Nick McKenzie and Chris Masters published reports alleging he had committed war crimes in Afghanistan. "We are unanimously of the opinion that the evidence was sufficiently cogent to support the findings that [Roberts-Smith] ... murdered four Afghan men" the court stated, ordering Roberts-Smith to pay the respondents' legal costs. The trial cost the parties a combined $30 million in legal costs, with the appeal costing a further $4 million.

On 17 June 2025, Roberts-Smith sought special leave in the High Court of Australia to appeal against the judgment of the Full Federal Court.

On 4 September 2025, the High Court refused his application for leave to appeal and ordered that he pay costswhich will include the further cost of the application to the High Court. Following the High Court's rejection of Roberts-Smith's final appeal that month, the Australian War Memorial updated the wording of his display to state that he had exhausted all legal avenues to challenge the defamation judgment.

Funding Throughout his legal actions, Roberts-Smith has been supported by several prominent Australians. Stokes funded his original civil proceedings, as noted above. John Singleton paid for newspaper advertising which called attacks on Roberts-Smith "disgraceful". However, they later accepted Rinehart's lawyers' assurance that she possessed no such documents.

On 9 September 2025, the Federal Court ordered Roberts-Smith together with Kerry Stokes's private company Australian Capital Equity to pay costs fixed at $13,270,950 to the media respondents, plus a costs assessment fee of $224,872 for the application for costs.

Arrest and charges (2026)

The abandonment of the earlier AFP probe led to the establishment of a new joint task force with personnel from the Office of the Special Investigator and a new team of AFP investigators, known as Operation Emerald-Argon, to investigate the allegations.

On 7 April 2026, Roberts-Smith was arrested by the Australian Federal Police at Sydney Airport. (three charges of aid, abet, counsel, or procure an offence, one charge of actual offence and one charge of joint commission of an offence) with a potential maximum sentence of life imprisonment. The charges relate to the alleged killing of an Afghan man in Kakarak in April 2009, and the deaths of civilians in Darwan and Syahchow in September and October 2012. He was remanded to the Silverwater Correctional Complex to appear before the online bail court on 8 April 2026. His legal counsel declined to apply for bail at that hearing. Subject to strict conditions and a $250,000 surety, bail was granted on 17 April.

Roberts-Smith has sought funding for his defence from the Afghanistan Inquiry Legal Assistance Scheme, a Commonwealth Attorney-General's Department program that provides assistance for legal representation and related costs for current and former ADF members who have been "charged with a crime in relation to matters that are the subject of the AFP or OSI Afghanistan investigation". Although no formal court plea has been entered, Roberts-Smith said in a public statement on 19 April 2026 that he denies the charges.

Public perceptions

Prior to the publication of war crimes and domestic violence allegations, Roberts-Smith was widely regarded as one of Australia's most admired and highly decorated soldiers. He was considered a national hero. In 2013, he was named Australian Father of the Year by The Shepherd Centre, a not-for-profit charitable organisation. In 2014, Roberts-Smith was made deputy chair for Tony Abbott's mental health advisory committee.

The combat uniform Roberts-Smith wore during the battle in Afghanistan for which he was awarded the Victoria Cross is displayed at the Australian War Memorial. The Memorial also commissioned a 2014 painting of him, Michael Zavros's Pistol Grip. From 2014 to 2017, Roberts-Smith served as Chair of the National Australia Day Council, a social enterprise owned by the Australian Government. His voice, alongside others, was featured on Australian country singer Lee Kernaghan's 2015 track "Lest We Forget" from the album Spirit of the Anzacs. The National Portrait Gallery commissioned a photographic portrait of him by Julian Kingma in 2018.

Roberts-Smith said that after the allegations against him were published he lost approximately $475,000 worth of speaking engagements. He had been offered a partnership at consulting firm PwC; however, after he had informed them of the allegations, the job had not proceeded.

Personal life Roberts-Smith met his former wife, Emma Groom, in 1998 at an army ball in Sydney when he was 19.

In April 2018, Person 17 arrived at Groom's house and showed her hundreds of text messages sent by Roberts-Smith, revealing that Roberts-Smith had been having an affair. In January 2022, Roberts-Smith was ordered to pay his former wife's legal costs after unsuccessfully trying to sue her in the Federal Court over allegations that she had accessed confidential emails.