Ben Roberts-Smith asked private investigator to take blame for ‘threatening letters’, court told (edited)

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Mr Roberts-Smith told him to say “you’re a supporter of mine” who wrote the letters because “you were sick of the way I was being treated”, he said.

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“I said, ‘f— that, you weak dog’, and I walked away,” Mr McLeod said.

He “ceased contact” with Mr Roberts-Smith after this time. Asked about text messages in which he referred to the former soldier as a “prick” and a “psycho”, he said it reflected “a degree of frustration and disappointment”.

Mr McLeod denied he had spoken to the media about the alleged events or Mr Roberts-Smith generally, saying “I despise the media”.

Mr McLeod told the court that Mr Roberts-Smith had given him the name of another soldier, dubbed Person 1, as a potential recipient of two letters, but the former soldier later told him Person 1 was “either on deployment or overseas and to throw them into the bin”.

Person 1 has previously given evidence in the Federal Court that Mr Roberts-Smith threatened and bullied him over a number of years, an allegation Mr Roberts-Smith has denied.

Mr Roberts-Smith has denied giving letters to Mr McLeod to send to Person 18, and denied giving him two postal addresses for the soldier. He has also denied giving documents to Mr McLeod as part of a plan to send threatening letters to Persons 1 and 18.

Asked about “odd jobs” he did for Mr Roberts-Smith and his family, Mr McLeod said he had “pretended to be a bartender to listen to the conversations that were happening” at a party hosted by the former soldier, now general manager of Seven Queensland, “and report back to Ben”.

“That happened when he took over Channel 7 up in the Sunshine Coast, and he had the majority of staff turn up at his house. He wanted to know what they thought of him,” Mr McLeod said.

Mr Roberts-Smith has taken leave from his role at Seven during the defamation trial.

Mr Roberts-Smith’s barrister, Bruce McClintock, SC, put it to Mr McLeod that he was hired “to be the doorman and check people going in, not to spy on the guests”.

“No. That’s not correct,” Mr McLeod said.

Mr McLeod agreed he conducted surveillance on a woman in 2017 or 2018 at the request of Mr Roberts-Smith, who was seeking video evidence of her entering and leaving an abortion clinic in Queensland.

He said the woman appeared to have gone to a neighboring hospital with a similar name, which did not perform abortions.

Mr Roberts-Smith has admitted in court that he had an affair with the woman and asked Mr McLeod to follow her to check if she attended an abortion clinic because he suspected she was lying about being pregnant to manipulate him into staying in the relationship.

The private investigator said Mr Roberts-Smith also asked him in about 2017 or 2018 to help get another SAS soldier investigated over an alleged weapons offence.

Mr McLeod said he used an anonymous email address to contact the Commissioner of the Australian Federal Police, The Australian, and former independent Senator Nick Xenophon.

He said Mr Roberts-Smith asked him to reply to a journalist who responded to the email and say he was a serving member of the SAS, because “it’s not from you, it’s from me”.

The court has previously heard that Mr Roberts-Smith suspected the soldier at the center of the allegations, Person 6, had made damaging claims about him to the media.

Mr Roberts-Smith told the court last year that he told Mr McLeod it was “fine with me” if he passed on allegations about Person 6 to his contacts or friends in the AFP but he “didn’t “instruct [Mr McLeod] to do anything”.

He said he did not remember discussing with Mr McLeod if material was given to a journalist at The Australian but said they “possibly” discussed it.

The court has heard Mr Roberts-Smith sent a text to his wife, Emma, ​​which read “what happened to [Person 6] will scare the others”. He has denied seeking to intimidate anyone but agreed last year that he believed Persons 1, 6 and 18 were engaged in a “whispering campaign” against him towards the end of 2017.

Mr McLeod gave evidence for The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Canberra Times in the defamation suit filed against the mastheads by Mr Roberts-Smith.

Mr Roberts-Smith alleges a series of articles published in 2018 portrays him as a war criminal who bullied a fellow soldier, among other claims. He denies all wrongdoing. The media outlets are seeking to rely on a defense of truth.

The trial continues.

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