A disastrous defamation case

News.com.au reported:

Decorated war veteran Ben Roberts-Smith has lost his defamation case against Nine newspapers.

The 44-year-old did not front the Federal Court on Thursday as Justice Anthony Besanko found imputations put forward across six articles by The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and The Canberra Times were found to be substantially true. …

There was silence across the courtroom as Justice Besanko found the decorated veteran was a murderer and a war criminal in his conclusions.

He’s gone from a war hero and VC winner to having been found judicially to have murdered unarmed people. He now faces losing his medals and even criminal charges over his actions.

The hubris to launch a defamation claim against media, when you basically know that what they reported was truthful, has bitten him big time. He has taken unverified allegations and now had a Judge confirm them.