BRS paid PI to ‘spy’ on Channel 7 staff

The Federal Court had heard that while he was general manager of Channel 7’s Queensland division, Mr Roberts-Smith hired a private investigator to pretend to be a bartender at a party in his house.

He then invited colleagues from the TV network and had the PI report back what they were saying about him as rumours swirled regarding news reports that he was a war criminal, the court was told.

On Thursday, Mr Roberts-Smith lost his defamation trial against Nine newspapers’ The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and The Canberra Times.

The journalists, Nick McKenzie and Chris Master, claimed the Australian soldier had machine gunned an unarmed insurgent with a prosthetic leg and that he had kicked an innocent civilian off a cliff, among other allegations.

Federal court judge Anthony Besanko ruled that, on the balance of probabilities, Mr Roberts-Smith was indeed a war criminal and a murderer as the allegations had been proven to be “substantially true”.

The following day, on Friday, the 44-year-old resigned from his senior position at Channel 7, although he had not been acting in that role for some time as he had been on leave while the defamation case was underway.

During the course of the mammoth 110-day trial, the court heard from a private investigator, John McLeod, who claimed Mr Roberts-Smith had hired him for a number of “odd jobs”.

One of those included being a “spy” at a party.

During the defamation trial last year, Mr McLeod took to the stand and said he had “pretended to be a bartender to listen to the conversations that were happening” at a party Mr Roberts-Smith was hosting.

He then had to “report back to Ben”. Most of the attendees at the party were journalists from Channel 7’s Queensland newsroom.

“That happened when he took over Channel 7 up in the Sunshine Coast, and he had the majority of staff turn up at his house. He wanted to know what they thought of him,” Mr McLeod told the court.

During the cross-examination, the barrister for Mr Roberts-Smith, Bruce McClintock, said the private eye was there “to be the doorman and check people going in, not to spy on the guests”.

“No. That’s not correct,” Mr McLeod responded.

Kate McClymont, a reporter at the Sydney Morning Herald, took to Twitter on Friday night to point out the bizarre situation.

“Hard to believe that Ben Roberts-Smith has only just resigned as general manager of Seven Qld,” she wrote.

“A Private Eye told the trial that BRS paid him to pretend to be a bartender at a Channel 7 office party hosted by BRS so he could report back what colleagues were saying about him.”

She later added: “I wonder if there was any retribution against any Channel 7 staff who were overheard by the spy saying anything unfavourable about their boss Ben Roberts-Smith”.

Kerry Stokes, the boss of Seven West Media, has been a strong backer of Mr Roberts-Smith and even bankrolled his legal expenses.

The cost of both sides’ legal fees ran into the tens of millions, and is reported to be about the $25 to $30 million mark.

Mr Roberts-Smith is expected to be ordered to pay back Nine’s costs, although it is doubtful he will be able to do so.

At first, the Seven Network denied that the company was paying for Mr Roberts-Smith’s legal case as well as providing legal counsel to several witness, but during the trial one SAS soldier revealed the television network was fronting his costs.

Seven Network later clarified that at first the network was paying the fees, but this then transferred to another arm of the Stokes empire, Australian Capital Equity, a private company.

On Thursday, following the outcome of the case, Mr Stokes told AAP he had not spoken to Roberts-Smith but “the judgment does not accord with the man I know”.

“I know this will be particularly hard for Ben, who has always maintained his innocence,” Stokes added.

“That his fellow soldiers have disagreed with each other, this outcome will be the source of additional grief.”

​Mr Stokes earlier caused controversy by stating at Seven West Media’s annual general meeting: “Ben Roberts-Smith is innocent and deserves legal representation and that scumbag journalists should be held to account. And quote me on that.”

Mr Roberts-Smith fronted every day of the trial but on judgement day, he was spotted lounging poolside in a Bali resort — which surprised Mr Stokes.

Speaking after the defamation win, McKenzie, one of the two reporters who uncovered the truth about Mr Roberts-Smith, criticised Stokes for his rampant pursuit to stop his investigative journalism.

“This is a media proprietor who should believe in journalism, yet he was waging a huge war against investigative journalism,” McKenzie told ABC 7.30 on Thursday night.

News.com.au contacted Seven Network for comment.