High Court Rejects Ben Roberts-Smith Final Defamation Appeal

Ben Roberts-Smith, a decorated Australian war veteran and recipient of the Victoria Cross, has lost his final legal bid to overturn a Federal Court defamation ruling that found allegations of his involvement in war crimes were substantially true. The High Court of Australia refused his special leave to appeal, ending a seven-year legal battle over reports accusing him of committing or being complicit in the unlawful killing of four detainees in Afghanistan, including kicking a handcuffed man off a cliff and machine-gunning an unarmed prisoner to take his prosthetic leg as a trophy. Justice Anthony Besanko's 2023 ruling upheld these claims on the balance of probabilities, despite Roberts-Smith's contention that the evidence was insufficient and his assertion of innocence as he has not been criminally charged. Roberts-Smith was ordered to pay a lump sum towards Nine Network's legal costs, estimated in the tens of millions, while his former employer privately funded the lengthy trial. The court rejected Roberts-Smith's argument that the Federal Court erred in assuming he accepted some allegations during the appeal. This decision concludes the extensive defamation proceedings, with Roberts-Smith maintaining his innocence but facing significant legal and reputational consequences.