Ben Roberts-Smith VC MG (b. 1978), former Australian Army soldier, is the recipient of the Medal for Gallantry in 2006, the Victoria Cross in 2011 and the Commendation for Distinguished Service in 2013.
In 2017, Roberts-Smith’s military service came under scrutiny as a result of an inquiry – commonly known as the Brereton Report – into questions of unlawful conduct on the part of Australian military personnel in Afghanistan. The inquiry resulted in a 2018 Australian Federal Police investigation into Roberts-Smith over allegations of war crimes. Media reports of these allegations led to Roberts-Smith bringing a defamation action against The Age, the Sydney Morning Herald, the Canberra Times and three journalists. After two years of hearings, the defamation case was dismissed, with Federal Court Justice Anthony Besanko finding the newspapers had established the substantial or contextual truth of many of their allegations. On the balance of probabilities, Justice Besanko found that Roberts-Smith had ‘broken the moral and legal rules of military engagement’. Ben Roberts-Smith continues to deny any wrongdoing.
