Benjamin Roberts-Smith VC, MG (born 1 November 1978) is an Australian former soldier[1] who, in a civil defamation trial in 2023 he initiated in the Federal Court of Australia, was found to have committed war crimes (including murder) in Afghanistan during 2009, 2010 and 2012.

[12] In November 2018, the Australian Federal Police launched an investigation into Roberts-Smith over allegations he committed war crimes in Afghanistan.

[13] With assistance from a legal team hired by Seven Network owner Kerry Stokes, Roberts-Smith commenced defamation proceedings in August 2018 against Nine Entertainment publications The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, and against The Canberra Times, and also named each of the three journalists involved in reporting alleged acts of bullying and war crimes committed by him.

[15] The media outlets mounted a defence which required them to prove the truth of their claims based on the civil standard of proof, on the balance of probabilities, applying the Briginshaw principle.

[29] The award arose from a 2012 tour of Afghanistan, in which Roberts-Smith "distinguished himself as an outstanding junior leader on more than 50 high risk" operations.

[36] In October 2013, when Roberts-Smith announced that he was leaving the Army,[37] the University of Queensland offered him a scholarship to study a Master of Business Administration, with a view to establishing a program to support other soldiers in transitioning to a corporate career.

[49] Separately in 2015, the voices of Roberts-Smith and various others were featured in the song Lest We Forget with Australian country music singer Lee Kernaghan on the studio album Spirit of the Anzacs.

[51] The patrol report had identified only a single Afghan unarmed "spotter", but Roberts-Smith later said that two armed insurgents had approached the position in an oral account provided to the Australian War Memorial.

[52] Following the publication of Masters' book No Front Line in October 2017, Fairfax Media's Nick McKenzie and the ABC's Dan Oakes covered the story, linking the case to an ongoing inquiry by the Inspector-General of the ADF into criminal misconduct on the battlefield by special forces; an inquiry that resulted in the Brereton Report.

[53] In June 2018, a joint ABC–Fairfax 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.

[57] In August 2018, Fairfax Media reported that Roberts-Smith bullied several of his fellow soldiers as well as a female companion's allegations that she was subjected to an act of domestic violence in Australia.

[58] In June 2023, ABC reported that it has been alleged that Roberts-Smith directed another SASR soldier to kill an elderly imam during an August 2012 operation in Afghanistan.

[60] In April 2021, the AFP confirmed it was also conducting a probe into allegations that Roberts-Smith had destroyed or buried evidence directly related to the ongoing investigation.

In its truth defence, Fairfax defended its reporting as "substantially true", detailing a series of six unlawful killings alleged to have been carried out by Roberts-Smith in Afghanistan, including those in Darwan.

[63] Kerry Stokes' private investment company Australian Capital Equity (ACE) extended Roberts-Smith a line of credit, against which he drew $1.9 million.

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.

[65] In August 2020, it was reported that legal experts had raised concerns about a personal relationship between Roberts-Smith and his defamation lawyer, saying it could constitute unprofessional conduct.

[66] News Corp Australia published a photo of Roberts-Smith holding hands with the lawyer, who they reported was visiting him in his new apartment in Brisbane.

[67] In the Federal Court, the Fairfax/Nine Entertainment lawyer Sandy Dawson claimed that Roberts-Smith and his wife had given inconsistent accounts about the status of their relationship during previous years.

"Person 1", a serving SASR member, conveyed that Roberts-Smith had stated to him he would "put a bullet in the back of his head" if he didn't improve his performance.

[74][75] Fairfax Media’s defence against Roberts-Smith’s suit ended in early April 2022 after calling witnesses for eleven weeks.

Besanko found that the newspapers on trial, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and The Canberra Times, had established substantial or contextual truth of many of their allegations, including that Roberts-Smith "broke the moral and legal rules of military engagement and is therefore a criminal”.

[92] In November 2023, it was ruled that Roberts-Smith should pay approximately ninety-five percent of the costs incurred by Nine Entertainment from when he began proceedings against them in 2018.

[93] The following month, it was reported that Kerry Stokes (Roberts-Smith's former employer and financial backer) would pay most of these costs to his commercial rival, Nine.

[106] In January 2022, Roberts-Smith was ordered to pay the legal costs of his ex-wife after unsuccessfully trying to sue her in the Federal Court over allegations that she had accessed confidential emails.