Latest news with #Person17
Sky News AU
04-05-2025
- Sky News AU
Nine paid Ben Roberts-Smith case witness $700,000 hush money to protect company's star journalist Nick McKenzie
Sky News Australia can reveal that Nine paid its own witness $700,000 hush money and asked her to sign a non-disclosure agreement to cover up the conduct of one of the company's star journalists in the Ben Roberts-Smith defamation case. Nine paid a key witness in the Ben Roberts-Smith defamation case $700,000 in hush money to stop her from going public with allegations of misbehaviour against its star journalist Nick McKenzie. Nine's own witness in the Ben Roberts-Smith case, who they claimed was a domestic violence victim, sent explosive emails to Nine threatening to tell the court that the media company had unlawfully obtained his privileged legal strategy. She said she had an audio recording of McKenzie, and other evidence, as proof. In response, Nine paid the witness, known as Person 17, $700,000 under an agreement with a confidentiality clause, right before the Victoria Cross recipient's appeal against the network commenced. It prevented the damning allegations from being heard as part of the appeal. The email from the woman, who claimed she'd had an affair with Roberts-Smith, was sent to Nine executive Tory Maguire and executive counsel Larina Alick in May 2023. In the email, dated May 12th 2023, the witness wrote: 'There is a mountain of evidence of Nick… telling me what these women were supposedly saying prior to giving evidence, which does not align with what Emma has now said on oath. 'How do you explain that? 'I also know these women were passing on confidential & privileged information to Nick as far back as mid-late 2020. 'What are you going to do, when all of that comes out to the judge?' She also claimed there had been a 'behind the scenes corrupting of the process.' 'If you have to lie & cheat to win, then you shouldn't be playing the game at all.' Sky News has also obtained the unfiled statement of claim made by Person 17 which also includes the allegation that McKenzie had obtained Roberts-Smith's privileged legal strategy. 'By some time prior to 24 April 2021, the respondents had gained unauthorised access to material over which BRS had a claim of legal professional privilege,' it states. "On 24 April 2021, the respondents fixed a prospective witness in the Defamation Proceeding (namely, P17) with knowledge of that unauthorised access.' Sources told Sky News that Nine paid the witness, known as Person 17, more than $700,000 and asked her to sign a non-disclosure agreement, buying her silence. But after Sky News broadcast the audio recording in March, 2025, Nine demanded that Person 17 repay the $700,000 hush money and threatened to sue her - despite the fact she was Nine's own witness who they claim was a victim of domestic violence. The letter from Ms Alick accused Person 17, without proof, of leaking the audio recording to Roberts-Smith and Sky News. 'The Nine Group request that your client refund the Settlement Sum in full within 14 days,' it states. 'If payment is not received by Monday, 7 April 2025 the Nine Group will commence legal proceedings against your client for payment of the debt under contract law.' Person 17 sent a return legal letter rejecting the allegations Nine made and denying that she had leaked the audio recording. Roberts-Smith sued Nine for defamation after they accused him of war crimes during his deployments in Afghanistan. He lost the long-running, costly defamation action and then lodged an appeal in the Federal Court. The court heard on Friday that McKenzie was aware the woman had previously raised concerns with him about providing Robert-Smith's legal strategy but In his evidence to the court on Friday, McKenzie denied knowledge of legal correspondence between Nine and Person 17. He also in his evidence claimed that none of the information provided by Roberts-Smith's ex-wife Emma Roberts and/or her friend, Danielle Scott, constituted privileged information. Nine has stood by McKenzie's journalism, claiming there has been no breach of ethics or legal privilege. The audio recording captured a conversation from early 2021 between McKenzie and Person 17. In the recording, McKenzie claims Emma and Danielle had been 'actively briefing us on his legal strategy in respect of you … we anticipated most of it. One or two things now we know.' During the defamation trial against Nine, Roberts-Smith launched separate legal action accusing his ex-wife of accessing an email account he used for confidential legal correspondence. He claimed information that only originated in the email account had found its way to Nine and that it had the potential to contaminate the trial. Roberts-Smith's lawyers argued the account had been accessed at least 101 times, including by Danielle Scott. Emma later admitted that she had allowed her close friend, Danielle, to access her ex-husband's email accounts, but only in relation to their marriage breakdown. The judge, Justice Robert Bromwich, dismissed the legal challenge from Roberts-Smith that his emails were accessed, saying his case was circumstantial and based on suspicions. After Sky News broadcast the audio recording, in which McKenzie claimed to have breached his ethics, Nine admitted the emails had also been accessed in relation to Person 17 - but claimed the information was not legally privileged.
The Age
02-05-2025
- Politics
- The Age
Witness in Roberts-Smith case threatened to sue Nine, star reporter
A woman who gave evidence for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald as part of the newspapers' defence to Ben Roberts-Smith's multimillion-dollar defamation case later threatened to sue the mastheads and one of its top investigative reporters, a court has heard. Nick McKenzie is the journalist at the centre of Roberts-Smith's defamation case against the Nine-owned media outlets over a series of articles accusing the former Special Air Service corporal of war crimes. Roberts-Smith spectacularly lost the defamation case in 2023 after Federal Court Justice Anthony Besanko found he was complicit in the murder of four unarmed prisoners while he was deployed in Afghanistan. He launched an appeal and had been awaiting the court's decision following a hearing last year. Roberts-Smith applied to reopen his appeal in March after a 'secret recording' emerged of a phone call between McKenzie and a witness in the defamation trial, dubbed Person 17 to protect her identity. The conversation took place before Person 17, who had an extramarital affair with Roberts-Smith, gave evidence in the trial in 2022. Loading Person 17 alleged during the trial that Roberts-Smith punched her on the left side of her face and eye at a hotel in Canberra after a dinner in Parliament House in 2018. Roberts-Smith vehemently rejected that allegation, and Besanko found Person 17's testimony was not sufficiently reliable to prove the alleged assault. However, Besanko found some of Roberts-Smith's behaviour towards Person 17 was 'intimidatory, threatening and controlling'. The Full Court of the Federal Court is hearing Roberts-Smith's application to reopen his appeal to introduce evidence relating to the recorded conversation over a two-day hearing that started in Sydney on Thursday.
Sydney Morning Herald
02-05-2025
- Politics
- Sydney Morning Herald
Witness in Roberts-Smith case threatened to sue Nine, star reporter
A woman who gave evidence for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald as part of the newspapers' defence to Ben Roberts-Smith's multimillion-dollar defamation case later threatened to sue the mastheads and one of its top investigative reporters, a court has heard. Nick McKenzie is the journalist at the centre of Roberts-Smith's defamation case against the Nine-owned media outlets over a series of articles accusing the former Special Air Service corporal of war crimes. Roberts-Smith spectacularly lost the defamation case in 2023 after Federal Court Justice Anthony Besanko found he was complicit in the murder of four unarmed prisoners while he was deployed in Afghanistan. He launched an appeal and had been awaiting the court's decision following a hearing last year. Roberts-Smith applied to reopen his appeal in March after a 'secret recording' emerged of a phone call between McKenzie and a witness in the defamation trial, dubbed Person 17 to protect her identity. The conversation took place before Person 17, who had an extramarital affair with Roberts-Smith, gave evidence in the trial in 2022. Loading Person 17 alleged during the trial that Roberts-Smith punched her on the left side of her face and eye at a hotel in Canberra after a dinner in Parliament House in 2018. Roberts-Smith vehemently rejected that allegation, and Besanko found Person 17's testimony was not sufficiently reliable to prove the alleged assault. However, Besanko found some of Roberts-Smith's behaviour towards Person 17 was 'intimidatory, threatening and controlling'. The Full Court of the Federal Court is hearing Roberts-Smith's application to reopen his appeal to introduce evidence relating to the recorded conversation over a two-day hearing that started in Sydney on Thursday.
