Roberts-Smith’s VC misguided: SAS witness

A SAS soldier says it was misguided to award Ben Roberts-Smith the highest military honour for a battle fraught with rumours and the decision made him uncomfortable.

The witness codenamed Person 18 told the defamation trial on Wednesday in the Federal Court that rumours had begun circulating shortly after the 2010 battle of Tizak in Afghanistan.

Mr Roberts-Smith was awarded the Victoria Cross after allegedly gunning down multiple insurgents while his squad had faced an onslaught of enemy fire.

But Person 18 said not long after the stand-off “rumours were running wild”.

He explained there were doubts the former SAS corporal had accurately pulled a pin on the grenade he threw and that his weapon had a stoppage after entering a building.

And some patrol members believed another soldier who fought side-by-side with the war veteran – dubbed Person Four – should have achieved the accolade instead, he said.

“If something was surrounded by that many rumours … probably wasn’t deserving, unfortunately.”

Mr Roberts-Smith, 43, is suing The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Canberra Times for defamation over reports that he committed war crimes and murders in Afghanistan between 2006 and 2012.

One of a handful of Australian recipients of the VC since 1970, he has suggested some claims stem from jealous associates spiteful of his medallic achievements.

Person 18 was asked by Arthur Moses SC on behalf of Mr Roberts if he was the one spreading rumours because he was a “hater”.

“I don’t hate Ben, I don’t know the guy,” he responded.

“I know I worked with him 12 years ago (but) as a person, what he does, I got no idea.”

The witness agreed he had not witnessed the entire Tizak battle, but that he had formed his own opinion based on what he had heard.

“If rumours were clouding the awarding of Australia’s highest military honour … the decision was misguided,” he said.

Person Four previously testified that “both of us did as much as each other that day”, and he felt hurt he was awarded a medal of gallantry two years after his own achievements.

He also believed he shot and killed one of the enemies Mr Roberts-Smith was subsequently praised for.

The trial continues.

Roberts-Smith’s VC misguided: SAS witness
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