Ben Roberts-Smith: Digital footprint shows federal investigations leaked story a day before arrest

The digital fingerprint of a Nine news story about the arrest of Ben Roberts-Smith reveals the file was created the day before Australian Federal Police took the former SAS soldier to jail after dragging him from a Qantas flight.

The West can reveal the digital imprint – the URL – of the original story “Ben Roberts-Smith arrested over multiple war crimes” had a “canonical” stamp – the unique data code – of April 6. Roberts-Smith was arrested at Sydney airport on April 7.

The URL attached to the story that was published after his arrest — ben-roberts-smith-arrested-over-multiple-war-crimes-20260406-p5zlp6.html — suggests the Sydney Morning Herald story file was created by its author at least 12 hours before the arrest.

Nine was first with the arrest the next morning and also published watermarked footage of Mr Roberts-Smith being marched from a plane by police.

The revelation that suggests Nine was onto the arrest hours before it happened adds to the impression causing consternation among some in law enforcement and veterans that federal officials from the AFP or the Office of the Special Investigator had collaborated in some way with Nine, a media outlet which had long pursued Mr Roberts-Smith.

Nine originally accused the decorated soldier of committing war crimes and successfully defended a defamation action over the claims.

After the shock arrest of the war hero, which has led to expressions of sadness among Australians and politicians, including the Prime Minister who sent Mr Roberts-Smith into Afghanistan, Nine celebrated, saying the arrest was justice for the families of Afghan men alleged to have been killed in alleged war crimes during the conflict.

Nine also attacked notable Australians who had helped Mr Roberts-Smith defend his reputation.

In its campaign against Mr Roberts-Smith, Nine also accused him of domestic violence, a claim that was rejected by a judge in the defamation battle.

It emerged later, that Nine paid the accuser $700,000 to buy her silence after she made accusations against the media outlet.

Nine have never properly answered questions about the payment. Further adding to conspiracy claims, a secret audio recording that emerged last year captured a Nine reporter revealing that he was aware that federal agents were stationed undercover in Mr Roberts-Smith’s apartment complex.

Nine on Friday refused to respond to questions about how the story file was created the day before the arrest.

Both the AFP and the Office of the Special Investigator have refused to answer questions over how Nine knew of Mr Roberts-Smith’s arrest, or whether there will be an investigation into the possibility that details of the sensitive operation were leaked.

“Questions about how media organisations operate are not for the AFP,” a spokesperson said in a statement.

“This matter, a joint operation between the AFP and OSI, is before the courts. No further comments will be made.”

A spokesperson for the OSI said it: “has nothing further to add to the AFP’s response on this.”