Ben Roberts-Smith to remain behind bars as it’s revealed he offered to hand himself into AFP

Victoria Cross awardee Ben Roberts-Smith will remain behind bars, with his bail hearing completed without an application being submitted, as it’s revealed he’d made multiple offers to hand himself into the Australian Federal Police if they intended to charge him with war crimes.

Instead of accepting his offer, the AFP chose to arrest Australia’s most decorated soldier on a commercial flight from Brisbane to Sydney in front of his partner and two teenage daughters.

Mr Roberts-Smith’s lawyers offered in writing to make him available “at any place, at any time” to the authorities to be arrested, a source close to the former SAS corporal said. The AFP declined to comment.

The 47-year-old veteran had flown to Sydney from Queensland during school holidays for a day of shopping. He was filmed by an AFP cameraman as he was taken from the terminal by detectives and uniformed officers wearing ballistic vests and placed in an unmarked police car on Tuesday morning.

He was kept overnight in Silverwater Correctional Centre in Western Sydney.

Charged with five counts of war crime – murder during the war in Afghanistan, Mr Roberts-Smith did not appear via videolink when his matter was briefly mentioned before Judge Lucas Swan in Bail Division Court on Wednesday morning.

“In short, we’re not making an application for release today,” his solicitor Jordan Portokalli told the court.

“The second matter is we’re seeking that the matter be listed for mention preferably today in the Downing Centre, but we understand that might be a bit of a pipe dream. But as soon as possible.”

Judge Swan replied: “Very much a pipe dream because I don’t have access to the Downing Centre diary, as you would have been made aware when in contact with the Chief Magistrate’s Office yesterday.”

Judge Swan said Mr Roberts-Smith’s legal team could apply for a bail application to be heard in Sydney’s Downing Centre Local Court, which could be as early as today.

Mr Roberts-Smith’s matter was otherwise set down to be mentioned in court again on June 4, with the brief of evidence to be served by May 21.

By detaining the veteran in public, the AFP maximised the publicity from the arrest, potentially undercutting criticism of war crimes investigations, which have taken a decade and will have cost around $320 million by the end of this financial year, according to public documents.

Mr Roberts-Smith is determined to fight the charges, which will pit him against former colleagues from the elite special forces unit who have accused him of executing a prisoner and ordering the executions of others during Australia’s longest war, according to a person close to him.

The trial will likely divide the nation. While many Australians are aghast that the special forces unit might have breached the rules of war, others consider Mr Roberts-Smith a hero.