Ben Roberts-Smith agrees to pay costs of failed defamation action
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Billionaire media mogul Kerry Stokes and his company, the Seven Network, will fight an application for them to pay the costs of the multimillion-dollar defamation suit that they bankrolled for war veteran Ben Roberts-Smith, after its comprehensive defeat this month.
However, Roberts-Smith has agreed to pay the costs of his failed defamation action against The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and the Canberra Times on an indemnity basis from the time that his case first appeared in court in early 2020.
Ben Roberts-Smith departs a property in Perth, Western Australia, after arriving back in the country from New Zealand.Credit: Philip Gostelow
Roberts-Smith’s barrister, Arthur Moses, SC, gave no indication at a case management hearing on Thursday that Roberts-Smith intends to appeal the finding by Justice Anthony Besanko on June 1 that the newspapers had proven the decorated veteran was a war criminal who had murdered Afghan prisoners. He also found that Roberts-Smith may have perverted the course of justice by intimidating a witness at the trial.
Roberts-Smith, a Victorian Cross and Medal of Gallantry recipient, sued the newspapers over six stories published in 2018 that alleged he had unlawfully killed prisoners, engaged in a campaign of bullying against a fellow soldier and committed an act of domestic violence.
The case, which ran over 110 days and involved 41 witnesses, is estimated to have cost more than $25 million in legal fees. But Besanko found the newspapers had proved three murders that were the subject of the stories and another one besides, as well as the act of bullying.
He found the newspapers had not proved an allegation of domestic violence, but the sting of that allegation was neutered by the finding that Roberts-Smith was a war criminal and murderer.
Roberts-Smith resigned from his role as general manager at Seven Queensland the following day.
Stokes, whose family is the majority shareholder in Seven West Media, was Roberts-Smith’s most ardent supporter and funded the case through the public company in its early days, before transferring the liability to a loan from his private company Australian Capital Equity. Seven also covered $170,000 in legal costs for three witnesses who agreed to give evidence on behalf of Roberts-Smith, though the company later said Stokes’s private company subsequently paid the bills.
Besanko noted in his findings that arranging to pay the legal costs of Roberts-Smith’s witnesses was “unusual”.
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