Ben Roberts-Smith is expected to fly into Australia as soon as Wednesday night, where he will face intense scrutiny, after being spotted at a New Zealand airport.
He was not in court for the release of the judgment, which found the media outlets had proven the truth of allegations he was involved in war crimes, murder and bullying. Roberts-Smith had attended every day of the 110-day trial.
Roberts-Smith was thought to be headed to his home town of Brisbane but had yet to be sighted in Australia on Wednesday evening.Roberts-Smith had been spotted in Wanaka in recent days. A witness who testified in support of the former Seven Network executive in the defamation trial owns a property near the town. Known as Person 35 in the trial, the former soldier’s identity was suppressed by the court.
The taskforce comprises detectives from the specialist war crimes agency, the Office of the Special Investigator and a new team of federal police investigators not connected to the abandoned AFP probe.
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