1. Ben Roberts-Smith was awarded a Medal for Gallantry in 2006, the Victoria Cross for Australia in 2011, and a Commendation for Distinguished Service in 2012.
39 Facts About Ben Roberts-Smith
1. 2.
Ben Roberts-Smith was deployed to Iraq throughout 2005 and 2006.
3.
Ben Roberts-Smith was deployed to Afghanistan on six occasions during 2006,2007,2009,2010 and 2012.
4.
In June 2023, ABC reported that it has been alleged that Ben Roberts-Smith directed another SASR soldier to kill an elderly imam during an August 2012 operation in Afghanistan.
5.
Ben Roberts-Smith was born on 1 November 1978 in Perth, Western Australia.
6.
Ben Roberts-Smith is the elder son of Sue and Len Roberts-Smith.
7.
At school Ben Roberts-Smith developed a reputation for standing over smaller students.
8.
Ben Roberts-Smith joined the Australian Army in 1996 at age eighteen.
9.
Ben Roberts-Smith took part in operations off Fiji in 2004, and was part of personal security detachments in Iraq throughout 2005 and 2006.
10.
Ben Roberts-Smith was deployed to Afghanistan on six occasions, throughout 2006,2007,2009,2010 and 2012.
11.
In 2006, Ben Roberts-Smith was awarded the Medal for Gallantry for his role, as a patrol scout and sniper, in an operation in Afghanistan between May and September of that year.
12.
The decision to award the VC to Ben Roberts-Smith was raised during defamation proceedings where it was revealed that several former and serving members of the SAS had questioned the decision.
13.
In 2012 Ben Roberts-Smith was deployed to a rotation as a patrol commander.
14.
Ben Roberts-Smith left the full-time army in 2013 at age thirty-five with the rank of corporal, then joining the Army Reserve.
15.
On 26 January 2014, Ben Roberts-Smith was awarded the Commendation for Distinguished Service as part of the 2014 Australia Day Honours.
16.
In June 2024, Ben Roberts-Smith attended Government House, Western Australia to receive the King Charles III Coronation Medal, bestowed by King Charles III on all living Australian recipients of the Victoria Cross.
17.
Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese commented that the decision to include Ben Roberts-Smith had been made by the Palace and not the Australian government.
18.
In October 2013, when Ben Roberts-Smith announced that he was leaving the Army, the University of Queensland offered him a scholarship to study a Master of Business Administration, with a view to establishing a program to support other soldiers in transitioning to a corporate career.
19.
Ben Roberts-Smith admitted that he was 'shocked' at being offered the position.
20.
From 2014 to 2017, Ben Roberts-Smith was chair of the National Australia Day Council, an Australian Government-owned social enterprise.
21.
The patrol report had identified only a single Afghan unarmed "spotter", but Ben Roberts-Smith later said that two armed insurgents had approached the position in an oral account provided to the Australian War Memorial.
22.
On 6 July 2018, Fairfax Media reported that Ben Roberts-Smith was "one of a small number of soldiers subject to investigation by an inquiry looking into the actions of Australian special forces soldiers in Afghanistan".
23.
In June 2023, ABC reported that it has been alleged that Ben Roberts-Smith directed another SASR soldier to kill an elderly imam during an August 2012 operation in Afghanistan.
24.
The Federal Court of Australia declared in September 2020 that no charges against Ben Roberts-Smith had been laid.
25.
News Corp Australia published a photo of Ben Roberts-Smith holding hands with the lawyer, who they reported was visiting him in his new apartment in Brisbane.
26.
Fairfax Media's defence against Ben Roberts-Smith's suit ended in early April 2022 after calling witnesses for eleven weeks.
27.
Besanko found that the newspapers on trial, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and The Canberra Times, had established substantial or contextual truth of many of their allegations, including that Ben Roberts-Smith "broke the moral and legal rules of military engagement and is therefore a criminal".
28.
Besanko found that four murder allegations against Ben Roberts-Smith had been proven.
29.
Meanwhile, it was ruled that allegations that Ben Roberts-Smith committed domestic violence and threatened to report another soldier to the International Criminal Court had not been proven, but did not further harm Ben Roberts-Smith's reputation given the other substantially true allegations, thus establishing contextual truth.
30.
Judge Besanko stated that Ben Roberts-Smith was not a reliable witness due to having an obvious motive to lie.
31.
Besanko stated that he believed that Ben Roberts-Smith had threatened a soldier who gave testimony against him.
32.
On 15 June 2023, Ben Roberts-Smith stated that he was proud of his actions in Afghanistan and would not be apologising.
33.
In November 2023, it was ruled that Ben Roberts-Smith should pay approximately ninety-five percent of the costs incurred by Nine Entertainment from when he began proceedings against them in 2018.
34.
On 11 July 2023, Ben Roberts-Smith filed an appeal against Justice Besanko's judgment to the Full Court of the Federal Court after being granted an extension.
35.
In September 2024 it was reported that Ben Roberts-Smith had attended a recent Australian Defence Force gala dinner to celebrate the sixtieth anniversary of the Special Air Service Regiment and that some who had served in the special forces found this inappropriate.
36.
Ben Roberts-Smith met Emma Groom in 1998, at a army ball in Sydney, when he was 19.
37.
In 2013, Ben Roberts-Smith was named Australian Father of the Year by The Shepherd Centre, a not-for-profit charitable organisation.
38.
Friends of Groom appraised that Ben Roberts-Smith's hands-off parenting was not in tune with him being named father of the year.
39.
In January 2022, Ben Roberts-Smith was ordered to pay the legal costs of his ex-wife after unsuccessfully trying to sue her in the Federal Court over allegations that she had accessed confidential emails.