Ben Roberts-Smith loses defamation case, with judge finding former SAS soldier committed war crimes

Justice Anthony Besanko found newspapers established substantial or contextual truth of allegations of murders of unarmed civilians in Afghanistan

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Ben Roberts-Smith VC, Australia's most decorated living soldier, murdered unarmed civilians while serving in the military in Afghanistan, a federal court judge has found.

Sitting in Sydney, Justice Anthony Besanko found that on the balance of probabilities, Roberts-Smith kicked a handcuffed prisoner off a cliff in Darwan in 2012 before ordering a subordinate Australian soldier to shoot the injured man dead.