Nine journalist Nick McKenzie to give evidence on bombshell accusations in Ben Roberts-Smith’s bid for retrial

All eyes will fall on decorated Nine journalist Nick McKenzie when he takes the stand on Thursday to give evidence on bombshell accusations he received privileged information ahead of former SAS soldier Ben Roberts-Smith’s defamation trial.

Mr Roberts-Smith failed in his bid to sue Nine Newspapers in 2023 for a series of articles alleging that he had committed war crimes, with the Federal Court instead finding, on the civil standard of the balance of probabilities, that the allegations were true.

The Victoria Cross recipient is claiming a miscarriage of justice after recordings surfaced last month of Mr McKenzie allegedly admitting to accessing information relating to the veteran’s legal strategy before the trial.

While his defamation retrial bid has been in and out of the courts over the past few weeks, Mr Roberts-Smith is yet to make a public appearance, however, his parents Sue and Len Roberts-Smith have appeared on several occasions in support of their son.

Mr Roberts-Smith is contending that his ex-wife Emma Roberts had access to his email account, and that she and her friend Emma Scott passed his privileged messages on to McKenzie.

In the Federal Court on Tuesday, Arthur Moses, acting on behalf of Mr Roberts-Smith, read a message from November 2020 allegedly sent to McKenzie from Ms Scott.

In the Signal message, Ms Scott told McKenzie that Ms Roberts was “going to notify and write to the CDPP (Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions) of a breach of the Family Law Act” and “restrain any further publications being made”.

She added that it was “always better to be on the front foot” and “know what they are playing” and “you owe me 2x beers”.

Roberts-Smith is seeking to reopen his appeal, led by “fresh evidence” — a recording of McKenzie made public last month.

In the recording, McKenzie tells a witness that he was given the information by Ms Roberts and Ms Scott, and that he is breaching his ethics by divulging the information.

“They’ve actively like briefing us on his legal strategy, in respect of you,” he says in the recording.

“We anticipated most of it, one or two things now we know which is helpful.

“I’ve just breached my f...ing ethics in doing that, like this has put me in a s..t position now, like if Dean (Nine lawyer Dean Levitan) knew that and Peter (Nine lawyer Peter Bartlett) knew that, I’d get my arse f...ing handed to me on a platter.”

There is no suggestion of any wrongdoing by any lawyers in Nine’s legal team acting on the case.

A hearing in the Federal Court of Sydney will begin on Thursday and is expected to span two days.