But she said she attempted to report the alleged incident to the police twice,after her husband suggested she do so,before getting cold feet because she wanted to speak to someone senior and was rebuffed.
“I was worried about Ben’s connections in military and police,” Person 17 said.
She said she spoke to The Age and the Herald’s investigative reporter Nick McKenzie in about May that year because she was “trying to protect myself”,and not because she wanted to make the allegation public. Person 17 said she “was really afraid of what I was caught up in” and “just really paranoid and fearful”.
She said she was worried she was being followed and a man had approached her in public on April 3,2018,with two compromising photos in an envelope,that “looked like Ben and I having sex in a hotel room” up against a window. She believed the photos had been taken from outside the room,the court heard.
“[The man] said to me,‘you’ve been seeing Ben Roberts-Smith.’ He showed me the photos. He said I was to tell[Mr Roberts-Smith’s wife] Emma about the affair or the photos would be made public,” she said.
Person 17 denied fabricating her evidence and said she didn’t tell Mr Roberts-Smith about the photos because “I didn’t trust him”. She conceded she texted him the next day about staying together overnight,potentially at the same hotel,without mentioning the alleged incident.
She said her meeting with McKenzie led eventually to contact with the Australian Federal Police and the ACT police,but in the end she sought legal advice and felt it was not in her best interests to proceed with a complaint.
Under cross-examination by Mr Roberts-Smith’s barrister,Bruce McClintock,SC,Person 17 agreed she was very drunk at the event that night in Canberra. She also agreed that she had told the then Defence Force deputy chief Vice-Admiral Ray Griggs at the event that she was having an affair with Mr Roberts-Smith.
She denied she was so drunk that she couldn’t look after herself or hold herself up without leaning against the wall.
Mr McClintock put it to Person 17 that she had made attempts to contact Mr Roberts-Smith until at least last year.
“No,” she replied.
Pressed by Mr McClintock about why she continued to see Mr Roberts-Smith after the alleged punch,Person 17 told the court she was “simultaneously in love with him and afraid of him”.
“My client had no power over you,did he?” Mr McClintock said.
“He did,” Person 17 replied.
She denied she was motivated by revenge or vindictive spitefulness to tell Mr Roberts-Smith’s wife about their relationship on April 6,2018,when she arrived unannounced at the couple’s home.
The trial continues.
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