Australia’s most decorated living soldier, Ben Roberts-Smith, has been granted an additional honour in the form of a coronation medal from King Charles. However, the 45-year-old veteran of the war in Afghanistan has other less celebrated credentials to his name – war crimes.
Eyebrows were raised when Roberts-Smith, who served with the Special Air Service in Afghanistan from 2009 until 2012, received the award in June from Buckingham Palace, given to all Victoria Cross recipients. After all, the soldier only last year failed in a legal case against three Australian newspapers deeming him a war criminal, with the judge concluding it was ‘substantially true’ that Roberts-Smith had been involved in the killing of four Afghan civilians.
