SYDNEY — Australia's most decorated soldier was "complicit in and responsible for the murder" of three Afghan men on deployment, a judge said, elaborating on his finding against the former Special Air Service Regiment special forces corporal in a blockbuster defamation trial.
Australian civil courts require a lower threshold to prove accusations than criminal courts do. Roberts-Smith has not been charged with any offences and has not commented since the ruling. His lawyer was not immediately available for comment. Roberts-Smith has since quit his job as a television executive.
Roberts-Smith was accused by the newspapers of ordering a lower-ranking soldier to shoot dead an "older Afghan male", identified in the case as EKIA56, to "blood the rookie", he said.