Person 18 said he heard Person 5 tell Mr Roberts-Smith after the mission that they had “blooded the rookie”. He didn’t know what they were talking about at the time, Person 18 said, but it was a “running joke” that Person 4 was the “rookie”.
Person 18 was called to give evidence for The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Canberra Times in the defamation suit filed against the mastheads by Mr Roberts-Smith.
Mr Roberts-Smith alleges a series of articles published in 2018 portray him as a war criminal. The media outlets are seeking to rely on a defence of truth and allege Mr Roberts-Smith committed or was involved in six murders of Afghans under the control of Australian troops, when they cannot be killed under the rules of engagement.
Mr Roberts-Smith maintains any killings in Afghanistan were carried out lawfully in the heat of battle.
Yet another serving SAS soldier, dubbed Person 14, told the court last month that he saw an Australian soldier during the Whiskey 108 mission shoot a separate Afghan man at close range with a distinctive machine gun, an F89 Para Minimi, that he later saw in the possession of Mr Roberts-Smith. Person 14 said he later saw that the Afghan man had a prosthetic leg.
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Person 18, who was a member of Mr Roberts-Smith’s patrol during the Whiskey 108 mission, said on Friday that Mr Roberts-Smith was carrying a Minimi on that day while the rest of his patrol had M4 assault rifles.
Person 18 said he found the bodies of two Afghan men outside the compound, and one had a prosthetic leg. He did not observe weapons on the bodies, he said.
Person 18 told the court that he had received a threatening letter in the mail on June 12, 2018, with a handwritten address. He said the letter claimed he had “colluded to tell lies”, including to a Defence Force inquiry, and he had until the end of the month to change his evidence or he would “go down”. It was signed “a friend of the regiment”, Person 18 said.
He gave the letter to the Federal Police, and received another letter with the same handwritten address two days later, he said.
John McLeod, a former Queensland police officer-turned private investigator who worked for Mr Roberts-Smith, has previously told the court he cut off contact with the decorated former soldier after Mr Roberts-Smith asked him to lie and take the blame for allegedly threatening letters sent to Person 18.
Mr McLeod said Mr Roberts-Smith asked him in 2018 to post two letters to Person 18.
In September 2018, The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald reported that a threatening letter had been sent to a soldier who served alongside Roberts-Smith in Afghanistan, warning against helping a Defence Inspector-General inquiry into allegations of misconduct and war crimes by Australian soldiers.
Mr Roberts-Smith has denied giving letters to Mr McLeod to send to Person 18, and denied giving him two postal addresses for the soldier.
The trial continues.