Ben Roberts-Smith

The following are extracts from the citations of the Department of Defence for Roberts-Smith's two awards for gallantry.

On 31 May 2006, Lance Corporal Roberts-Smith was employed as a patrol scout and sniper that was tasked with establishing an observation post near the Chora Pass in Oruzgan province, Afghanistan. On 2 June, the observation post had become the focus of the Anti-Coalition Militia force and repeated attempts to locate and surround the position ensued. In one particular incident the Militia attempted to outflank the observation post. Roberts-Smith was part of a two man team tasked to move out of their relatively secure position in order to locate and neutralise the Militia and regain the initiative. This task was successfully achieved.

In another incident, two Anti-Coalition Militia attempted to attack the observation post from a different flank, Roberts-Smith again moved to support and neutralise one of these Militia. Roberts-Smith then realised that the forward edge of the observation post was not secure and made the decision to split the team and take up an exposed position forward of the patrol so he could effectively employ his sniper weapon. Whilst isolated, and in his precarious position, he observed a group of sixteen Anti-Coalition Militia advancing across open ground towards the observation post. Roberts-Smith effectively employed his sniper rifle to stop their advance whilst receiving very accurate small arms fire from another group of Militia to his flank. Roberts-Smith maintained the initiative and ensured that his patrol remained secure by holding this position without support for twenty minutes. He was eventually reinforced by his original team member and together they continued to hold off the Militia advance for a further twenty minutes until offensive air support arrived.[6]

Roberts-Smith was presented with the VC by the Governor-General of Australia, Quentin Bryce, at a ceremony in Perth on 23 January 2011.[8]

On 11 June 2010, a troop of the Special Operations Task Group conducted a helicopter assault into Tizak, Kandahar province, in order to capture or kill a senior Taliban commander.

Immediately upon the helicopter insertion, the troop was engaged by machine gun and rocket propelled grenade fire from multiple, dominating positions. Two soldiers were wounded in action and the troop was pinned down by fire from three machine guns in an elevated fortified position to the south of the village. Under the cover of close air support, suppressive small arms and machine gun fire, Roberts-Smith and his patrol manoeuvred to within 70 metres of the enemy position in order to neutralise the enemy machine gun positions and regain the initiative.

Upon commencement of the assault, the patrol drew very heavy, intense, effective and sustained fire from the enemy position. Roberts-Smith and his patrol members fought towards the enemy position until, at a range of 40 metres, the weight of fire prevented further movement forward. At this point, he identified the opportunity to exploit some cover provided by a small structure.

As he approached the structure, Roberts-Smith identified an insurgent grenadier in the throes of engaging his patrol. Roberts-Smith engaged the insurgent at point-blank range resulting in the death of the insurgent. With the members of his patrol still pinned down by the three enemy machine gun positions, he exposed his own position in order to draw fire away from his patrol, which enabled them to bring fire to bear against the enemy. His actions enabled his Patrol Commander to throw a grenade and silence one of the machine guns. Seizing the advantage, and demonstrating extreme devotion to duty and the most conspicuous gallantry, Roberts-Smith, with a total disregard for his own safety, stormed the enemy position killing the two remaining machine gunners.

His act of valour enabled his patrol to break into the enemy position and to lift the weight of fire from the remainder of the troop who had been pinned down by the machine gun fire. On seizing the fortified gun position, Corporal Roberts-Smith then took the initiative again and continued to assault enemy positions in depth during which he and another patrol member engaged and killed further enemy. His acts of selfless valour directly enabled his troop to go on and clear the village of Tizak of Taliban. This decisive engagement subsequently caused the remainder of the Taliban in Shah Wali Kot District to retreat from the area.[6]

On receiving the award, Roberts-Smith said:

I am so very proud to have taken part in the action with my mates. This award also belongs to them and to the Regiment. To my family, my beautiful wife Emma and our baby girls, Eve and Elizabeth, thank you for your enduring support and encouragement.[9] I think for everyone there including myself what's going through your mind is you just won't let your mates down. It's just like being on a football team, you don't let your mates down, you go as hard as you can until the game's won.[10]

On 26 January 2014, Roberts-Smith was awarded the Commendation for Distinguished Service as part of the 2014 Australia Day Honours.[11] 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.[12]

Following an investigation by journalist Chris Masters for his book No Front Line, Roberts-Smith's activities in Afghanistan came under scrutiny. One notable controversy concerned the killing of an alleged Taliban spotter during the Chora Pass contact. According to Masters, two members of the patrol had witnessed a lone Afghan teenager approaching the patrol observation post, leaving shortly thereafter. Although the two operators had decided it was not necessary to engage the Afghan, Roberts-Smith and patrol 2IC Matthew Locke arrived on-scene and the pair "decided to hunt down and shoot dead the two "enemy" (the teenager) after concluding they (the teen) had spotted the patrol".[13]

Although the patrol report had identified only a single Afghan unarmed "spotter", Roberts-Smith later said that two armed insurgents had approached the position in an oral account provided to the Australian War Memorial. When the inconsistency was raised, Roberts-Smith claimed to have remembered incorrectly.[14]

Following the publication of 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 Inspector-General of the Australian Defence Force inquiry into criminal misconduct on the battlefield by Australian special forces. Responding to the coverage in an interview with The Australian, Roberts-Smith described the scrutiny as "un-Australian". Oakes wrote "It's not 'un-Australian' to investigate the actions of special forces in Afghanistan."[15]

In June 2018, a joint ABC-Fairfax investigation detailed an assault on the Afghan village of Darwan in September 2012 during which a handcuffed man was allegedly kicked off a cliff by an Australian special forces soldier codenamed "Leonidas" after the famed Spartan king.[16][17] On 6 July 2018, Fairfax Media reported that Roberts-Smith 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."[18] In August 2018, Fairfax Media also reported allegations by several soldiers of being bullied by Roberts-Smith, as well as a female companion's claim that she was subjected to an act of domestic violence in Australia. Roberts-Smith has denied these allegations.[19] In response to this article series, Roberts-Smith commenced defamation proceedings against Fairfax. 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.[20]

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.[21] News Corp Australia published a photo of Roberts-Smith holding hands with the woman, who they reported was visiting him in his new apartment in Brisbane.[22] The woman conceded that it was "unwise to spend time with him socially".[23]

In the Federal Court, the Fairfax/Nine Entertainment lawyer Sandy Dawson SC claimed that Ben Roberts-Smith and his wife had given inconsistent accounts about the status of their relationship during previous years.[24]

On 1 September 2020, Dawson told the Federal Court that the Australian Federal Police have information, including an eyewitness, that allegedly implicates Roberts-Smith in Afghanistan war crimes.[25] The defamation trial is due to commence in June 2021 in Sydney.[26]

The Federal Court has established an online file in view of the public interest. Documents are placed there when considered publicly accessible. This is the only way documents can be viewed by third parties. Applications for access to the registry are therefore unnecessary. Orders and judgments are published on the Commonwealth Courts Portal.[27]