Tornado Alley (PROG)

[fuagf]

The Ben Roberts-Smith case is proving an ordeal for some soldiers

By Deborah Snow
March 19, 2022 — 6.06am

They have been trained to withstand the toughest psychological and physical pressures of combat. But there came a moment this week which crystallised the emotional toll the Ben Roberts-Smith defamation case is taking on some of the battle-hardened men summoned to give evidence.

That moment arrived when Person 24, a former member of the Special Air Service regiment, broke down under prolonged cross-examination from Roberts-Smith’s barrister, Arthur Moses, SC.

VIDEO - Soldier who served with Ben Roberts-Smith claims the war hero bullied and threatened him 1:35

An elite soldier who served in Afghanistan with Ben Roberts-Smith claims the war hero bullied and threatened to kill him.

Moses had challenged the soldier multiple times on his evidence, putting it to him that he was lying, “making things up”, concocting a “story”.

By late morning on Tuesday, Person 24 had reached snapping point. Choking up, he told Justice Anthony Besanko: “I am not telling any lies, your Honour. I am not making this up. I am as uncomfortable as any other person has been coming through here … I do not want to be here, I am here because I have been subpoenaed.”

Then came the disconcerting sound, briefly, of a grown man weeping, as he added: “I find it extremely difficult to stomach, having to give evidence against that man in the corner.”

The “man in the corner” is Roberts-Smith, who is suing The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald over allegations of unlawful killing of prisoners, bullying of fellow soldiers and striking a former lover. He has denied all wrongdoing.

[...]

He added that it was “extremely unfair the way this has panned out for BRS” and that he had severed some of his own friendships over attitudes to speaking with the media. Yet despite his avowed aversion to the proceedings, Person 24 has delivered some of the most damning and unequivocal eyewitness evidence yet to be produced in the case.

He swore that he saw Roberts-Smith execute an unarmed prisoner, in cold blood, outside an Afghan compound known as Whiskey 108 on Easter Sunday, 2009, by machine-gunning the man in the back.

So overt was the action, Person 24 told the court, that it seemed “an exhibition execution”, one which Roberts-Smith “wanted people to see”.

Person 24’s evidence was very similar to that given by another soldier, Person 41, the first military witness in the case in early February.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/the-ben-roberts-smith-case-is-proving-an-ordeal-for-some-soldiers-20220317-p5a5jq.html