Yahoo Movies Ben-Roberts Smith punched woman in face in Canberra hotel room, court told
Ben Roberts-Smith has been accused in court of punching a woman in the face in a Canberra hotel room, taking pictures of her naked body while she was unconscious and then initiating sex with her.
The soldier has vehemently denied the allegations, saying they are “completely false”.
“The whole story is a fabrication,” he told the court.
The details of Roberts-Smith’s tempestuous relationship with a woman, known in court documents as “Person 17” , were put before the federal court as part of the Victoria Cross recipient’s defamation against three newspapers he says have defamed him by portraying him as a war criminal and an abuser of women.
The court heard at one point in their relationship, after an altercation, he sent her a message by phone: “Don’t fucking abuse me again, because it won’t end well.”
Roberts-Smith did not deny sending the message but said “it wasn’t a threat”, and that he did not know the context in which it was sent.
The court has previously heard Roberts-Smith hired a private investigator to secretly surveil and film Person 17 as she attended a Brisbane abortion clinic to terminate a pregnancy the pair had agreed to end.
Roberts-Smith said he did so because he didn’t believe the woman was pregnant and that she was trying to manipulate him.
Roberts-Smith and Person 17 had a subsequent discussion at a hotel, in which he showed her the secret surveillance video of her at the abortion clinic, and she said she had been pregnant but had earlier had a miscarriage.
Owens put it to Roberts-Smith he said to Person 17: “I will burn your house down if you turn on me and it might not be you that gets hurt but people that you love”. Roberts-Smith denied saying those words.
Roberts-Smith has been accused of assaulting Person 17 in a Canberra hotel room after a dinner at the great hall of Parliament House on 28 March 2018.
The woman fell downstairs as she was leaving Parliament House with Roberts-Smith.
He has told the court she injured her head – resulting in a black eye – from this fall.
The newspapers allege the injury resulted from him punching her later on in the hotel.
Nicholas Owens, SC, for the newspapers, said that following the woman’s fall, Roberts-Smith helped her into the back seat of a commonwealth car that would drive them to the Realm hotel.
Owens put it to Roberts-Smith the woman had asked to be taken to hospital, and the driver offered – twice – to take them, but he refused, saying he could look after her.
In the hotel room, the court was told, Roberts-Smith shook Person 17 by the shoulders and said: “Fuck ... what have you done? You were all over men at dinner. I should have just left you there because now everyone’s going to know we’re having an affair.”
Owens said Person 17 moved towards the bed holding Roberts-Smith’s hands and said that her head hurt.
Roberts-Smith replied either “It’s going to hurt more” or “I’ll show you what hurt is”, withdrew his right hand from hers and punched her in the left temple with his right hand.
Person 17 staggered backwards and fell onto the bed, Owens said.
“That is a complete fabrication,” Roberts-Smith said.
“I’ve never hit a woman. I never would hit a woman. And I certainly never hit Person 17.”
While Person 17 was unconscious, Roberts-Smith went through her handbag, taking photographs of medication and of several pages of handwritten notes in her diary. The detail of those notes was not revealed before the court, but Roberts-Smith has said he was justified in taking pictures of the notes because they “pertained to me specifically”.
Roberts-Smith has previously told the court he took pictures of Person 17 while she was asleep, with the covers pulled over her body.
Related: Ben Roberts-Smith ‘traumatised’ by allegations he murdered unarmed civilians, court hears
Owens put it to Roberts-Smith he also took pictures of her naked body with the covers pulled down.
“No, and that’s disgusting,” Roberts-Smith said.
“You did it and you showed her the photographs the next morning,” Owens put to the soldier, alleging they were taken to manipulate and control her.
“No, I did not.”
Owens said Person 17 woke up during the night, said her head hurt and that she wanted to go to hospital.
“No, she didn’t wake up,” Roberts-Smith said.
Owens put it to Roberts-Smith “you initiated sex with Person 17”, and that after they had had sex, “she told you multiple times she was sorry and that she loved you”.
Roberts-Smith is alleged to have replied he loved her too and that “it will all be OK”.
Roberts-Smith said that version of events was a “complete fabrication”.
“We didn’t speak and we certainly didn’t have sex,” he told the court.
Roberts-Smith told the court he was “annoyed and frustrated” with Person 17 on the night of the dinner because he believed she had behaved disrespectfully, but that he was not angry, and that he never assaulted her.
In his evidence-in-chief, Roberts-Smith told the court that as he was arranging for a Comcar to take them back to the hotel, a staff member told him Person 17 had fallen down the stairs.
He said Person 17 had a “significant bump at the top of her left eye”.
“She looked extremely intoxicated,” he told the court. “She wasn’t really coherent, she couldn’t string words together.”
Roberts-Smith said he did not believe Person 17 needed to go to hospital, and he took her to the hotel room where he undressed her, put an icepack on her head, and put her to bed. He said he checked her respiratory rate and pulse and stayed awake all night checking she was OK.
The court also heard detailed evidence about Roberts-Smith’s marriage to Emma Roberts and his version of “separation” from his wife when he was still regularly staying at the marital home and having sex with his wife.
Roberts-Smith had been having an extramarital affair with Person 17 for four months before he told his wife about it. But he said he and his wife were separated at the time he and Person 17 began seeing each other.
“I’ve never had any qualms with using the word affair,” he told the court.
“It was life, I didn’t get it right all the time, but that’s exactly what happened.”
Roberts-Smith did not reveal the affair to a marriage counsellor or a psychiatrist.
Owens put it to Roberts-Smith that he pressured his wife to “adhere to the lie” of being separated so as to protect the soldier’s public reputation. Owens put it to Roberts-Smith that he told his wife if she did not accede “she would lose the children”.
“That is completely false,” Roberts-Smith said.
The court heard Roberts was “furious” when he called her to tell her she needed to conduct an interview with the Australian newspaper in which she would agree she was separated from Roberts-Smith at the time of his relationship with Person 17, and that she needed to participate in a photo-shoot.
Emma Roberts is scheduled to give evidence later in this trial.
Roberts-Smith is suing the Age, the Sydney Morning Herald and the Canberra Times for defamation over a series of reports published in 2018 that he alleges are defamatory because they 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.
