Ben Roberts-Smith was sent an anonymous letter telling him to abandon an extra-marital affair to “save your marriage and your family”, but the former soldier believes the letter was sent by the woman with whom he was having the affair.
A new tranche of documents released late on Friday by the federal court, as part of Roberts-Smith’s defamation action against three newspapers, reveals the complications of his private life away from the battlefield and amid allegations made against him of war crimes.
The court published Exhibit A34, an anonymous letter posted to Roberts-Smith family home that he shared with his then wife, Emma Roberts, and two young daughters.
“I can imagine what you were doing with another lady (other than Emma) at Suite 991 Hyatt Regency in Sydney for three nights from Sunday 19 November to Wednesday 22 November? People saw you there. Its [sic] on your credit card and phone records,” the letter said.
“Why are you risking everything that you have built in your life – your wife/marriage, your daughters/family, your career, your reputation?
“Where is this affair taking you?” it asked rhetorically.
“You need to stop and maintain your high standards and reignite your love/marriage with Emma. It is not too late ... yet. Try more marriage counselling. Save your marriage and your family please.”
The typewritten letter was signed “A friend at 7”, a reference to Roberts-Smith’s employer, Channel Seven.
Giving evidence as the first witness in his defamation trial, Roberts-Smith told the court in June he had received the letter to the PO Box he and his then wife used for their shared business.
He told the court he believed a woman with whom he was having an affair – anonymised in court documents as Person 17 – was the author of the letter.
“The substance of the letter was that I had been seen in a particular hotel room with a woman other than my wife and I should go back to my wife and seek marriage counselling, or words to that effect,” he told the court. “I suspected it was Person 17 … due to the details I thought it was Person 17.”
Both Person 17 and Emma Roberts are scheduled to give evidence later in this trial. Both are appearing as witnesses for the newspapers.
Also released on Friday night were a series of text messages between Roberts-Smith and Person 17 sent after a formal dinner at Parliament House, after which Person 17 sustained an injury to her head which gave her a black eye.
The newspapers have alleged the injury was the result of Roberts-Smith punching her during an argument. The woman fell down stairs at Parliament House while intoxicated. Roberts-Smith maintains this was the cause of the injury.
The court has previously heard of the tempestuous affair between Roberts-Smith and Person 17. He accused her of faking a pregnancy and hired a private investigator to surveil and film her at a Brisbane abortion clinic.
Roberts-Smith also told the court that at the end of their relationship Person 17 deceived him, watching him board a flight at Brisbane airport before abandoning her own planned flight and driving to his marital home to confront his wife.
“What have you done, this is outright blackmail,” he wrote to Person 17 when he found out.
She responded: “It most certainly is not blackmail.
“Please don’t waste your time with intimidation and payback either. The benefit of seeing what you were capable of a few weeks back and knowing the threats you’ve made to me since is that I immediately put in place ‘insurance’ in the event anything should happen to me or my family.”
Also in the new documents made public were operational reports from Roberts-Smith’s service in Afghanistan, and pictures of the Afghan village of Darwan where the newspapers alleged Roberts-Smith murdered a farmer called Ali Jan by kicking him off a cliff while he was handcuffed and then ordering him shot.
Roberts-Smith has categorically denied this ever happened, and says the man purported to be Ali Jan was a “spotter” for insurgents who was killed legally within the rules of engagement by him and another soldier. He says there was no cliff in Darwan and no prisoner was ever kicked.
Victoria Cross recipient Roberts-Smith, one of the most decorated soldiers in Australian military history, is suing the Age, the Sydney Morning Herald and the Canberra Times for defamation over a series of reports he alleges are defamatory and portray him as someone who “broke the moral and legal rules of military engagement” and committed war crimes including murder.
The 42-year-old has consistently denied the allegations, saying they are “false”, “baseless” and “completely without any foundation in truth”. The newspapers are defending their reporting as true.
The defamation trial has been suspended because of Sydney’s Covid-19 outbreak. It will recommence on 26 July at the earliest.
