Reputation roulette
Ben Roberts-Smith and his exploding defamation case
Self-inflicted wounds
There was something crazily Wildean about Ben Roberts-Smith asking a court to redeem his reputation.
For the Afgan war VC recipient it was foolhardy, certainly, to thrust into the field of legal battle when the risks would have been all too apparent to him. The exciting thing about defamation litigation is that no one can be certain of what might happen.
BRS knew about the laws of war, war crimes and the International Criminal Court - indeed, he used the threat of an investigation by the ICC against a young trooper, in order to get him to align his version of a field incident with that of Roberts-Smith's.
Therefore, he can't claim to be ignorant about war crimes.
Also, he must have known that numerous members of the SAS would back the stories about war crimes published by the Fairfax newspapers and that his would not be the only version that the court heard.
It was his arrogance that pushed him on, comfortably swathed in media billionaire Kerry Stokes' largesse and, no doubt, with encouragement from his lawyers, the "reputational management" law shop Mark O'Brien Legal.
O'Brien used to be on Fairfax's payroll, until he ran over to the other side of the street, recognising there could be a financial upside in suing the media group he once acted for.
Roberts-Smith loaded the revolver, fired and shot himself. The defence of substantial truth prevailed.
Possibly Roberts-Smith felt he had no option but to sue over Fairfax's newspaper articles implicating him in war crimes and violence against women.
He could conceivably have stuck with vehement public denials and let his PR machine, including Brendan Nelson the chairman of the Australian War Memorial, spoon-feed compliant hacks at the rival Murdoch fishwraps.
Oscar Wilde could not have been an inspiration for litigation. He sued the Marquess of Queensberry who left a calling card for the playwright with the porter at the Albermarle Club in London, which read: "For Oscar Wilde, posing as a somdomite [sic]".
Queensberry's son, Lord Alfred Douglas, was engaged in a homosexual affair with Wilde.
As his friends had warned, the criminal defamation trial went badly for Wilde. Queensberry was unflinching in the box, he admitted the libel and said it was justified with plenty of evidence to back it up.
Wilde was a genius, but too smart for his own good. Here's a crucial snip of his cross-examination by Edward Carson:
C--Do you know Walter Grainger?
W--Yes.
C--How old is he?
W--He was about sixteen when I knew him. He was a servant at a certain house in High Street, Oxford, where Lord Alfred Douglas had rooms. I have stayed there several times. Grainger waited at table. I never dined with him. If it is one's duty to serve, it is one's duty to serve; and if it is one's pleasure to dine, it is one's pleasure to dine.
C--Did you ever kiss him?
W--Oh, dear no. He was a peculiarly plain boy. He was, unfortunately, extremely ugly. I pitied him for it.
C--Was that the reason why you did not kiss him?
W--Oh, Mr Carson, you are pertinently insolent.
There's more of Carson's cross-examination here.
The following day Wilde withdrew the lawsuit, which was seen as an implication of guilt. Even more troubling, he had betrayed his class by associating with waiters, street waifs, newspaper boys and others from the lower orders.
Instead, of fleeing to France where homosexuality had been legal since the Revolution, he faced a criminal trial on 25 counts of gross indecency, ultimately was found guilty and sentenced to two years hard labour, first at Pentonville Prison and later Reading Gaol.
Why on earth did Wilde sue, when the truth was stacked against him? At the time and in the circumstances there was probably little option for him. He was trapped - if he wanted to remain in England, working and enjoying his celebrity, he had to rebut Queensberry.
Like Roberts-Smith, he was arrogant and believed himself invincible.
His other motivation was to protect "Bosie" Douglas. Certainly, the decision to withdraw the action was partly to avoid Bosie being called to the witness box and to give evidence against his father.
In more recent times we've had the catastrophic defamation case brought by the actor Craig McLachlan against the Nine (formerly Fairfax) newspapers.
He had been the subject of #MeToo allegations from 11 women in the Rocky Horror stage show, Neighbours, City Homicide and the Doctor Blake Mysteries.
In 2020 a Melbourne magistrate cleared him of indecent assault charges arising from the Rocky Horror Show, adding that McLachlan was an "unimpressive witness" while the women were "brave and honest". Still, it wasn't enough to get the 13 charges over the line.
He then turned to the civil courts with a defamation action against the ABC, Fairfax and his principal accuser, actor Christie Whelan Browne - all of who had reported his abuse.
Ten days into the trial and on the eve of the defence witnesses giving evidence, McLachlan withdrew his action - in the process facing legal costs in excess of $2 million.
According to The Sydney Morning Herald, the evidence included instances of sexual harassment, indecent exposure, indecent assault and bullying.
Just after McLachlan's evidence closed it came to light that he had failed to hand over to the defence more than 4,000 emails, texts and photos that had been extracted from his phone by forensic specialists.
It included traffic from his friend John Jarrett, an actor who in July 2019 had been found not guilty of raping his housemate 40 years earlier.
In one text message to McLachlan, Jarrett said:
"You’re going to defam the c---s so they're going to chuck everything at you. I read the shit, it's pathetic. Tonight's whinging bitch will be quickly forgotten once your powerful doco hits. The whole world is sick of this pathetic bullshit. What's the actress’s name, I’ll get onto it ASAP. F--- em. Your mate always, JJ."
He also told McLachlan that he would break the finger of another witness who was to give evidence against the actor.
The tide had turned, and Craigie scurried off, tail between his legs - never to be heard from again.
The common characteristic of these men who gambled and lost is their sense of entitlement. They had got away with whatever it was they got away with for so long that they came to believe that the world was "their lobster" (© Arfur Daley).
The spoils of war
Kerry Stokes' collateral for a $2 million loan he provided to BRS was the former soldier's award for bravery, the Victoria Cross.
It must be a pretty worthless bauble now, far below the prices Kezza usually pays when he snaffles VCs at auction.
Stokes wants to preserve Australia's medal heritage which saw him pay $1.2 million for the VC awarded to Captain Alfred John Stout - a world record.
The media moneybags has donated all the military gongs he collected to his favourite
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