A former Special Air Service soldier has told the Federal Court that a comrade confided in him that he did not feel “comfortable or safe” around Ben Roberts-Smith and the decorated soldier had threatened to kill him.
Person 21, who served in the SAS for more than a decade and was deployed to Afghanistan multiple times, gave evidence in Mr Roberts-Smith’s defamation case on Monday that a fellow soldier, Person 1, told him that he had been threatened by his comrade . The names of the men cannot be revealed for national security reasons.
Ben Roberts-Smith outside the Federal Court in Sydney on Monday.Credit:James Alcock
Giving evidence last week, Person 1 admitted that he received some negative performance reviews in 2006 and a warning to lift his performance. He moved out of Mr Roberts-Smith’s patrol and into Person 21’s patrol in July 2006 and his performance reviews improved after this time, the court has heard.
“Initially, Person 1 didn’t want to speak about his experience in Ben Roberts-Smith’s patrol and I didn’t ask because I didn’t want to be clouded, my judgement to be clouded, about his performance,” Person 21 told the Federal Court in Sydney.
“Eventually he told me he was threatened and he did not feel comfortable or safe.”
Person 21 said he had witnessed Person 1, among other soldiers, being “left to fend for themselves” in Mr Roberts-Smith’s patrol during a mission in Afghanistan’s Chora Pass.
“No one was really helping them with their equipment. They weren’t grouped together talking or banter[ing] like I would expect from my patrol where people are joking around or talking about the mission,” he said.
Person 21 said Person 1 later told him that “Ben Roberts-Smith told me he was going to f–k me off out of the unit”.
He said Person 1 also said “something along the lines of … ‘he threatened to kill me’.”
