One of Ben Roberts-Smith’s central accusers initially told journalists a different SASxjmtzyw soldier was responsible for an alleged war crime murder that shocked Australia, a court has heard.
The SAS witness, dubbed “a liar” by Mr Roberts-Smith’s lawyers, has also denied he told journalists the Victoria Cross recipient was “up the river” like Colonel Kurtz from Apocalypse Now.
Mr Roberts-Smith is suing Nine and its journalists, Nick McKenzie and Chris Masters, over a series of articles claiming he was involved in unlawful killings while deployed with the SAS in Afghanistan.
Mr Roberts-Smith denies he either ordered the six killings, or pulled the trigger, and says Nine defamed him with false allegations.
Nine stands by the stories saying they are true and, this week, called an SAS soldier to testify against Mr Roberts-Smith.
Person 14, as the SAS soldier is known, told the court last week he was involved in a raid on a Taliban compound known as Whiskey 108.
Mr Roberts-Smith would later be accused of machine gunned an ageing, captive Taliban with a prosthetic leg during the 2009 raid.
Mr Roberts-Smith denies that, saying he shot that insurgent while he was armed with a rifle during the battle.
Person 14 told the court, in his evidence last week, that he saw an unidentified Australian soldier march a “black object” outside the compound and threw it to the ground before unloading a Minimi machine gun into the object.
He later inspected the object and found it was the dead Taliban with a prosthetic leg.
At the end of the mission, Person 14 told the court, he saw Mr Roberts-Smith carrying the distinctive Minimi machine gun.
But the court heard Person 14 had initially told Mr Masters that the troop’s “rookie” had been carrying the machine gun and turned it on the old Afghan.
Mr Roberts-Smith’s barrister, Arthur Moses SC, told the court he had secured a note from Mr Masters about a meeting with Person 14 on February 27, 2018.
The note suggests Mr Roberts-Smith was carrying a different gun and it was the rookie, known as Person 4, who was carrying the machine gun.
“RS had an M14 and P4 a Minimi. Understood P4 had shot an old guy with a prosthetic leg,” Mr Moses said, reading from the note.
“Did you tell Mr Masters that?” the barrister asked.
“No,” Person 14 responded.
“You are lying when you said you haven‘t… and the evidence you have given is false,” Mr Moses said.
“Incorrect,” Person 14 said.
Later, under questioning about another allegation, Person 14 agreed that Mr Masters notes were “inaccurate”.
Person 14 told the court he initially assumed Person 4 was carrying the machine gun but “later learned” it was Mr Roberts-Smith.
He has repeatedly told the court he could not identify the Australian machine gunner because of the fading light on the Afghanistan battlefield.
Another SAS soldier has already accused Mr Roberts-Smith of machine gunning the man on the ground.
Mr Moses accused Person 14 of trying to “smear” Mr Roberts-Smith with “rubbish” that referenced an iconic Vietnam War movie about a Colonel who loses his mind in battle and vanishes into the jungle.
“Did you say ‘as time went on the Colonel Kurtz of Apocalypse Now factor took hold’ – did you say that?” Mr Moses asked.
“Did you say Mr Roberts-Smith had ‘gone up the river’?”
“No,” Person 14 said.
“Did you say ‘no one was stopping it even though we saw it coming’?”
“No, Mr Moses, I did not,” the SAS soldier responded.
This week Nine claimed that Mr Moses had contacted two other lawyers that had reached out to Nine’s key SAS witnesses who would testify against Mr Roberts-Smith.
Nine’s barrister claimed Mr Moses had expressed that the two SAS witnesses would not have their interests “properly protected” in court and, as a result, one was trying to withdraw from the case.
On Thursday those lawyers told the judge that allegation was “inaccurate and incorrect” and handed over sealed envelopes containing their contact with the two SAS lawyers.
The trial continues.
