Roberts-Smith is being held at the Metropolitan Remand and Reception Centre at Silverwater Correctional Centre in Sydney. The charges include five murders of unarmed prisoners, alleging he killed unarmed civilians or detainees who were not taking part in hostilities. In 2023, a Federal Court judge ruled in a defamation case that allegations Roberts-Smith committed four murders were substantially true on the balance of probabilities.
That civil defamation trial found Roberts-Smith had committed murder and other war crimes while deployed to Afghanistan. Roberts-Smith had sued three newspapers for 2018 reports that alleged he was involved in the murders of unarmed prisoners in Afghanistan. He denied the allegations and launched a multi-million-dollar defamation case in response.
The allegations are egregious and driven by spiteful peers.
Justice Anthony Beskano ruled that the papers had proven the bulk of their allegations to be substantially true and dismissed the case against them. An appeal to the Full Court of the Federal Court was unanimously dismissed on 16 May 2025. The High Court of Australia refused an application by Roberts-Smith for special leave to appeal on 4 September 2025 and ordered him to pay the defendants' costs.
A panel of three justices dismissed both his appeal and a last-minute attempt to reopen the case over a secret recording, and the court found no wrongdoing in how the original trial was conducted. At a bail hearing, prosecutors argued Roberts-Smith was a flight risk because he had advanced plans to move overseas and withheld this information from authorities. The prosecutor opposed bail, citing risks of witness interference and evidence tampering, including alleged use of burner phones.
He was a 'squirter' – a Taliban insurgent fleeing the compound.
Roberts-Smith's lawyer argued the flight risk claim was fanciful, as he had known about the investigation for years and never tried to abscond. The defense lawyer also said the case would take years and keeping him in custody would delay it due to difficulties accessing classified defense materials. Roberts-Smith is only the second Australian veteran of the Afghanistan campaign to be charged with a war crime, after Oliver Schulz.
A 2020 military report found evidence that elite Australian troops unlawfully killed 39 Afghan noncombatants. The Office of the Special Investigator has investigated 53 war crime allegations, with 39 concluding without charges. The Australian War Memorial has updated the display in its Hall of Valour to note Roberts-Smith's charges, but his uniform and medals remain on display.
The man was shot lawfully.
Roberts-Smith is a recipient of the Victoria Cross for Australia, the highest award for gallantry in battle that can be awarded to a member of the Australian Defence Force. Some historians have called for the removal of Roberts-Smith's display from the Hall of Valour, while others argue it should be moved to an Afghanistan gallery. A veteran gave his medals to MP Bob Katter to return to Canberra, expressing betrayal over Roberts-Smith's arrest.
Roberts-Smith broke down in court in 2021 over an allegation he punched his mistress, though the judge did not find this substantiated. His ex-wife and former mistress testified against him in the defamation trial. Roberts-Smith is 202cm tall and has been housed in a protection unit but can mix with other inmates.
The case was one of Australia's longest-running defamation trials, with legal costs estimated at about US$16 million, and Roberts-Smith's defence was partially bankrolled by the boss of Seven West Media. Roberts-Smith was photographed holidaying in Bali ahead of the ruling and did not attend court. He now faced the prospect of paying tens of millions in legal costs, with the total bill likely to exceed $25 million (NZ$27m).
Roberts-Smith is appealing a federal court judgment that in June dismissed his defamation case over 2018 reports about his alleged involvement in the murder of four unarmed prisoners while deployed in Afghanistan in 2009 and 2012. This ruling could now clear the way for a criminal investigation by the Australian Federal Police.