Ben Roberts-Smith in one of the photos allegedly found on the USB. Photo / SMH, The Age, 60 Minutes
Ben Roberts-Smith in one of the photos allegedly found on the USB. Photo / SMH, The Age, 60 Minutes
WARNING: Graphic content
Australia's most decorated soldier, Ben Roberts-Smith, allegedly had hundreds of photos from his time in Afghanistan in a lunch box in his backyard.
The Australian Federal Police has now launched a new investigation into the 42-year-old Victoria Cross recipient, after a story on 60 Minutes on Sundaynight aired multiple allegations about Roberts-Smith, including that he concealed hundreds of photos on a USB he buried in his backyard.
It's understood the USB – which reportedly contained hundreds of lewd images – was found in the backyard of his Queensland home last year.
The investigation claims some of the photos showed soldiers drinking alcohol from the prosthetic leg of a Taliban fighter who was killed by an Australian soldier in 2009.
In another photo, a soldier is seen dressed in a Ku Klux Klan outfit, while another image shows a commanding officer simulating a sex act with a fellow soldier.
Australian Army soldier Corporal Benjamin Roberts-Smith. Photo / news.com.au
The photos were taken on both Australian and Afghanistan bases.
Other photos were shot on the battlefield, with one more sinister image showing a dead suspected Taliban fighter whose eyes are seen covered with two souvenir Australian military coins.
Retired Admiral Chris Barrie, the former chief of the defence force, told journalist Nick McKenzie he strongly condemned the image.
"That's certainly not on," he said.
Ben Roberts-Smith, highlighted, inside a coalition military base in southern Afghanistan. Photo / Twitter: David Pugliese
Covert recordings also formed part of the televised investigation, where Roberts-Smith could be heard talking about how he had the backing of Seven West Media chairman Kerry Stokes despite allegations of war crimes.
Roberts-Smith is Seven West Media's Queensland manager.
"There's no f***ing way I'd be able to keep paying … until Kerry got into it," Roberts-Smith is heard saying in the recordings.
"That's why now they're sh***ing themselves because he's prepared to run his bank down to do it.
"But Seven's been good. Other businesses would have just gone, 'Mate, it's not tenable'. I offered to resign at the start and they said, 'Nah'."
Roberts-Smith, who did not feature in the story, launched legal action against Fairfax over a series of stories it published in 2018.
The defamation trial will begin in Sydney on June 7.
