Claim about leg pics in Roberts-Smith case Lawyers for Ben Roberts-Smith have made a big claim in court regarding photos of soldiers drinking from a Taliban’s prosthetic leg in a bar in Afghanistan.
News by PERRY DUFFIN 2nd Jun 2021 1:53 PM | Updated: 2:56 PM Lawyers for Ben Roberts-Smith have claimed in court hundreds of images of soldiers drinking out of a prosthetic leg were leaked to the press by the decorated soldier s ex-wife. The high stakes defamation trial of Mr Roberts-Smith will begin next week as he sues Nine newspapers over stories alleging war crimes in Afghanistan. Nine will argue a truth defence.
Ben Roberts-Smith has won a court victory with a judge ruling he will be the first witness at his defamation trial against media giant Nine over war crimes claims.
02:46 EDT, 27 May 2021
There has been a twist in the defamation trial of war hero Ben Roberts-Smith, with media giant Nine dropping a key claim that he chased a man into a cave and shot him dead while on deployment in Afghanistan.
The highly decorated former SAS trooper is suing Nine Entertainment Co, claiming a series of newspaper articles smeared him with false murder and war crimes allegations. Nine is defending the lawsuit with a truth defence.
But Nine told lawyers for Mr Roberts-Smith this week that it is no longer pressing with one allegation that he swam across the Helmand river, chased an unarmed Afghan man into a cave and murdered him near the village of Darwan on September 11, 2012.