If Roberts-Smith wins, he is likely to be awarded many millions more in damages. Whichever side loses the case may face up to $25m in costs. “It put a target on my back,” he told the court. Giving evidence as the first witness before the federal court, Roberts-Smith said the Victoria Cross he won for spectacular bravery in 2010 was not an honour he sought, but, ultimately, a burden “thrust upon him”. Roberts-Smith’s lawyers told court his accusers were fabulists and fantasists, failed soldiers embittered by their own “cowardice”, and a “corrosive jealousy” towards their comrade’s successes. He has sued the Age, the Sydney Morning Herald and the Canberra Times alleging their reporting defamed him, wrongly portraying him as a war criminal and murderer who who “broke the moral and legal rules of military engagement”. Roberts-Smith denies the allegations, and all wrongdoing.
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