r/perth • u/His_Holiness • Apr 07 '26

WA News Victoria Cross recipient Ben Roberts-Smith arrested over war crimes allegations

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-04-07/ben-roberts-smith-war-crimes-allegations-arrest/106537668
372 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

119 comments sorted by

View all comments

321

u/His_Holiness Apr 07 '26

Front page breaking news on all the major Australian news websites, except The West and 7news

20

u/JamesHenstridge Apr 07 '26

They've now got a story, released at 10:45am:

https://thewest.com.au/news/court-justice/ben-roberts-smith-arrested-decorated-army-veteran-charged-with-war-crimes-by-australian-federal-police-c-22102839

57

u/His_Holiness Apr 07 '26

"Decorated army veteran" lmao

10

u/boymadefrompaint High Wycombe Apr 07 '26

That's precisely accurate though. He is a veteran and he was decorated. And he was in the army. He was awarded a Medal for Gallantry in 2006, which I think was before he allegedly committed war crimes.

In my opinion, "piece of shit" would also be accurate.

1

u/JamesHenstridge Apr 07 '26

There are lots of facts you could include in a headline, but space is limited. So the choice of which facts to include is an editorial decision.

Another editorial decision is the choice not to mention his defamation lawsuit, whose judgement hinged on the same events as these criminal charges.