The former Liberal minister was giving evidence on the 15th day of Mr Roberts-Smith’s defamation trial againstThe Age andThe Sydney Morning Herald over articles that he says accuse him of war crimes,and an act of domestic violence against a woman with whom he had an extramarital affair. Mr Roberts-Smith,a former Special Air Service (SAS) soldier,denies all wrongdoing. The newspapers are seeking to rely chiefly on a defence of truth,but also say the soldier is not identified in some of the articles.
An at-times emotional Dr Nelson said,“I’ll try not to get angry about this” as he recounted a media conference in 2018 about an exhibition on First Nations Australians’ military service at which there was “not one single question” on that topic but a string of questions about Mr Roberts-Smith. He was asked if he regretted his support for Mr Roberts-Smith and if the former soldier should have his Victoria Cross removed.
“It has been devastating,the impact on him,” Dr Nelson said. He added he was cautioned by a very senior public figure,“not the prime minister”,seemingly about his public association with Mr Roberts-Smith.
Dr Nelson said he recognised Mr Roberts-Smith “immediately” in two stories in June 2018 referring to a soldier dubbed “Leonidas”. The articles referred to tattoos and a “fearsome warrior”,Dr Nelson said,and it was clear to him this was a reference to the two-metre-tall Mr Roberts-Smith,a “tall,imposing,warrior-like figure” who has a number of tattoos.
Prior to the articles,Mr Roberts-Smith was “the most respected,admired and revered Australian soldier in more than half a century,since Keith Payne,VC,of the Vietnam War”,he said.
Dr Nelson recalled that “wherever he went ... he was the subject and the object of what I would describe as reverential mobs”,and he witnessed people at the War Memorial “fall into his arms” describing their experiences.