Thread by @MurdochCadell

Ben Roberts-Smith claims being awarded the VC in 2010 made him a target for ‘jealous people’.

But the first time it was alleged he murdered a child was three years before in 2007.

BRS claimed his accuser was ‘weak and hopeless’.

But only after the accusation was made.

Ben Roberts-Smith twice changed his story about what happened in 2007, claiming there were two boys, and they were armed. Before ‘remembering the truth’

BRS put it down to a mistake of memory.

But he had been awarded a Medal of Gallantry for that day. You’d remember that.

The above facts were in a book by one of Australia’s most respected journalists who spent years researching it.

They have never been challenged.

The only defence BRS offers to this killing was that the boy was a ‘spotter’ (a Taliban Scout).

But there was no evidence, even on BRS account to suggest this.

He was just a boy. Walking on a track.
It was a breach of ROE.
It was the other SAS patrol members who complained.

Not only did the shooting of the boy in June 2007 constitute a murder, it was tactically silly, giving away the position of the (until then) covert observation patrol to the Taliban, who then located and attacked them. They were lucky to escape.

Which SAS soldier was the real ‘failure’? The one who took it upon himself to compromise and endanger the covert patrol, by the unnecessary and unjustified killing of a child, or the one who was not happy about it, and ‘stood up’ to BRS afterwards?

One of them deserved a medal.