An SAS commander claims Ben Roberts-Smith brutalised terrified Afghans, bullied his subordinates, intimidated his accusers and wanted to choke a man so he could “watch the life drain from his eyes” in harrowing court testimony.
Mr Roberts-Smith is suing Nine newspapers and journalists over a series of articles that claim Mr Roberts-Smith committed war crime murders in Afghanistan.
The Victoria Cross recipient denies every allegation and Nine has been calling his former SAS squadmates to back up their claims.
An SAS Warrant Officer Class Two, known as Person 7, levelled a series of allegations against the celebrated soldier when he stepped into the witness box on Wednesday.
Person 7 told the court Mr Roberts-Smith made a confronting comment days before the SAS troop embarked on their first mission in July 2012.
“Before this trip’s over I’m going to choke a man to death with my bare hands, I’m going to look him in the eye and watch the life drain out of his eyes,” Person 7 claimed Mr Roberts-Smith said.
The SAS was reeling from the death of Sergeant Blaine Diddams who was shot and killed by Taliban just days earlier.
Mr Roberts-Smith was tasked with planning a mission up the Chora Valley later that month, Person 7 told the court, and made more comments while briefing the troops.
“RS said words to the effect of ‘this is where Didds got killed, if those f***ers are up there we’re going to kill everyone one of those f***ers’,” Person 7 told the court.
A month later the Australian armed forces were hit by more tragedy – an Afghan soldier named Hekmatullah opened fire inside the main base at Tarin Kowt and killed three Diggers before fleeing.
Person 7 said the SAS went on multiple missions hunting the traitorous Hekmatullah across Afghanistan – including one mission in August 2012.
During that mission, Person 7 claimed, he entered a room with more than a dozen Afghans who had been detained – in army terms they were Persons Under Confinement or PUCs.
Person 7 told the court Mr Roberts-Smith had one Afghan against the wall and was holding the man’s shirt and “shirt punching” him in the face.
An Afghan girl aged three or four was crying in the arms of another Afghan man, who was squatting down to hold her, Person 7 said.
“As I was approaching he let the PUC against the wall go… the little girl ran up to the Afghan against the wall, he picked her up… the little girl started to calm down,” Person 7 said.
Person 7 said he asked Mr Roberts-Smith what was happening – the Victoria Cross recipient glared and said the Afghan he was hitting was a “bad c***”.
The court heard Mr Roberts-Smith said he had asked the Afghan what his daughter’s name was and he “hesitated”.
“He goes ‘well I’ve got two daughters and I know what their names are’,” Person 7 said.
“I said ‘RS you’re rag-dolling this bloke, you’ve asked what his girl’s name is… why do you think he’s hesitating?’ I shook my head and walked off.”
That was not the first time Person 7 claimed Mr Roberts-Smith had abused a detained Afghan.
Two years earlier, in 2010, Person 7 said he was dealing with a terrified Afghan who was sitting unarmed and cross-legged when Mr Roberts-Smith punched the man’s face with kevlar gloves.
“The Afghan posed no threat, there was no threat in the room. I thought it was completely unnecessary,” Person 7 said.
Person 7 told the court Mr Roberts-Smith had mistreated his own soldiers too, including at a training drill.
The court has previously heard the SAS were training in Perth, in 2012, with one soldier pretending to be a PUC while the other soldiers stood guard.
Person 7 said he watched from a vantage point on the roof of a mock Afghan hut as Mr Roberts-Smith led a soldier known as Person 10 over to the pretend detainee.
“RS was standing there with Person 10, with the detainee in the corner and RS said to Person 10 ‘f***ing kill him’,” The commander claimed.
“Person 10 looked down at the detainee and said ‘bang’. RS put his hand on Person 10’s shoulder and said ‘are you good with doing that? Because that’s how it’s going to be over there’.”
Person 7 told the court he described Mr Roberts-Smith as a “f***ing idiot” and confronted him after the training exercise.
Mr Roberts-Smith’s response, according to Person 7, was to mumble something about “f***ing war”.
Nine claims that during another 2012 mission to hunt down Hekmatullah, Mr Roberts-Smith kicked a detained Afghan farmer off a cliff and had other SAS soldiers execute the injured man.
Mr Roberts-Smith flatly denies that saying he shot a Taliban spotter with a radio.
Person 7 was at that raid, in the village of Darwan, but told the court he only heard Mr Roberts-Smith say he killed a Taliban spotter over the radio before seeing the dead body.
It wasn’t until the following year, back in Australia, that Person 7 claims another SAS soldier revealed the cliff kick allegation.
That soldier, Person 4, is mentally fragile and told the court just weeks ago he saw Mr Roberts-Smith kick the shepherd into a dry creek bed.
“(Person 4) told me a wave of panic came across his body and he saw the Afghan man’s head hit a rock and a tooth flew out,” Person 7 said.
“I stressed to him it was ‘a very serious allegation you’re making here, is it 100 per cent accurate, are you telling the truth?”
“He said ‘yeah bro, I am’.”
Person 7 told the court he was initially introduced to journalist Chris Masters to help with a book, that was approved by the ADF, about the special forces.
He then chose to turn whistleblower by talking to 60 Minutes journalist Nick McKenzie xjmtzywbecause of Mr Roberts-Smith, he told the court.
“There’s been a lot of blokes affected over the last 10 to 12 years over interactions with Ben Roberts-Smith and their lives adversely affected to varying levels – I’ve seen it first hand,” Person 7 said.
“Secondly, throughout 2018, as early as 2017, he was conducting an aggressive intimidation and threatening campaign of witnesses.”
Person 7 claimed Mr Roberts-Smith was sending threatening letters to former SAS squadmates who had testified at inquiries into war crimes.
Mr Roberts-Smith denies authoring the threats which arrived, in one instance, at the SAS headquarters.
One soldier even had his home raided by police.
Mr Roberts-Smith’s former friend told the court he tipped off the Federal Police that the soldier was carrying a high powered military rifle in his car around Perth – Mr Roberts-Smith denies asking him to do that.
“(Mr Roberts-Smith was in the media and saying all these soldiers were cowards hiding in the shadows, bitter and twisted and telling lies,” Person 7 said.
“It was a personal decision, it’s why I decided to speak with Mr Mckenzie and appear on 60 Minutes and be a voice from within.”
The trial continues.
