Today in Sydney, Australia’s most decorated soldier, former Special Air Services corporal Ben Roberts-Smith VC, was found by a civil court, on a balance of probabilities, to be a likely war criminal, a murderer, a liar and a bully.
Roberts-Smith is a huge man, towering over all around him. When he was presented alongside other Victoria Cross winners to the late Queen some years ago, he loomed over her by a good eighteen inches.
Can we ever fully understand what goes on in people’s minds in war?
His reputation as a battlefield soldier was fearsome. The mere sight of him charging towards the enemy must surely have intimidated the Taliban machine gun position that he single-handedly overran in the action for which he deservedly won his Victoria Cross.
In 2018, Roberts-Smith sued Australian newspapers The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, for running a series of extensive investigative reports on him. The articles covered his conduct on deployment in Afghanistan, and included documented allegations and witness claims that he murdered unarmed Afghan civilians and participated in the mutilation of Taliban fighters.
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