Nine chair Catherine West refuses to say if she approved $700k cheque to silence witness in Roberts-Smith case

Nine chair Catherine West has refused to say if she signed off on a $700,000 cheque to silence a crucial witness in the Ben Roberts-Smith case, running away from questions about the scandal engulfing the media company and its star reporter.

Ms West and the rest of Nine’s board have come under intense pressure to explain the payment of hush money to the witness to stop her from going public with complaints about journalist Nick McKenzie.

The witness, Mr Roberts-Smith’s one-time mistress known only as Person 17, had sent a series of explosive emails to Nine executives claiming the reporter had treated her poorly, and wrongly obtained the former soldier’s legal strategy in his war crimes defamation case.

To silence the woman, whom Nine alleges is a domestic violence survivor, Nine paid her $700,000 shortly before Mr Roberts-Smith’s appeal in the case was due to start.

Asked by 7NEWS outside her Sydney home on Tuesday to explain if she signed off on that payment, Ms West tried to avoid the camera, running inside and slamming the front door without responding to questioning.

Ms West, who was deputy chair to Peter Costello when the hush money was paid, also declined to respond when asked if she still stood by McKenzie’s reporting.

When Ms West emerged from the house again a short time later, she again ignored questions — including if Nine had made other payments to keep people quiet in the case — getting into the back of a black Audi and driving away.

It has been revealed that before she was paid off, Person 17 had sent emails to Nine executive Tory Maguire and executive counsel Larina Alick claiming McKenzie admitted receiving confidential legal strategies from the former SAS soldier’s ex-wife Emma Roberts and her friend Danielle Scott.

“I also know these women were passing on confidential and privileged information to Nick as far back as mid-late 2020,” the email said.

A recording of a conversation between Person 17 and McKenzie has since emerged, in which the journalist can be heard saying Ms Roberts and Ms Scott had been “actively briefing us on his legal strategy in respect of you”.

“I shouldn’t tell you. I’ve just breached my f...ing ethics in doing that,” he says.

After Sky News aired the recording in March, Nine demanded Person 17 repay the $700,000, accusing her of leaking the audio and breaching the confidentiality clause of her settlement.

The witness denies she leaked the information, and has since threatened to take legal action against the ABC after its Media Watch program insinuated that she was the source.

In a concerns notice sent to the ABC, she said suggestions she leaked the conversation were “false and seriously defamatory”.

The bombshell secret tapes prompted Mr Roberts-Smith to make an 11th hour bid to have his appeal reopened in the Federal Court, alleging he suffered a miscarriage of justice.

Mr Roberts-Smith, a Victoria Cross recipient, initially sued Nine for defamation after being accused of being a war criminal during his deployments in Afghanistan.

McKenzie faced hours of cross-examination on the issue last week, saying none of the information he was given by Mr Roberts-Smith’s ex-wife via Ms Scott was privileged and was no more than “gossip” between friends that had been passed onto him.

The judges reserved their decision on whether to grant a retrial.