The best friend of Ben Roberts-Smith’s ex-wife logged into the war hero’s private email account more than 100 times, the Federal Court has heard.
Mr Roberts-Smith has been trying to show his former wife Emma Roberts hacked into his emails herself or provided access to her lifelong friend Danielle Scott.
He took legal action against Ms Roberts on the eve of his defamation trial against Nine newspapers in June and the case was briefly back before court on Wednesday.
Mr Roberts-Smith is suing Nine for accusing him of complicity in six murders while serving with the Special Air Service in Afghanistan.
His lawyers allege Ms Roberts accessed an email account he used for confidential correspondence about his defamation case and a war crimes inquiry by the Inspector-General of the Australian Defence Force.
Ben Roberts-Smith is suing ex-wife Emma Roberts over claims she illegally accessed his emails. She has denied hacking into his account or giving a password to her best friend. The former couple is pictured together at Buckingham Palace in 2011
Danielle Scott (pictured) is Emma Roberts’s best friend and is set to give evidence against Ben Roberts-Smith. The Federal Court heard on Wednesday she had accessed Mr Roberts-Smith’s email account 101 times
The emails contained potentially privileged material, and Mr Roberts-Smith’s lawyers claim Ms Roberts might have shared some of that information with Nine.
Arthur Moses SC, for Mr Roberts-Smith, has told the Federal Court such action could ‘contaminate’ the defamation hearing.
He has further alleged Ms Roberts lied in affidavits sworn in response to evidence she hacked into her ex-husband’s private RS Group email account.
Ms Roberts was ordered to tell the court how she had allegedly obtained information from Mr Roberts-Smith’s emails and whether it was by herself or ‘agents’ including Ms Scott.
She initially claimed she had never accessed Mr Roberts-Smith’s emails but changed her evidence in a third affidavit and still denies she provided a password to Ms Scott.
‘[Ms Roberts] has been caught out lying on the objective evidence,’ Mr Moses told the court on Wednesday.
The barrister said Telstra records showed Ms Scott had logged on and accessed the email account at least 101 times.
Mr Roberts-Smith took legal action against his ex-wife on the eve of his defamation ‘trial of the century’ against Nine newspapers in June. The former couple is pictured with their twin daughters
Mr Roberts-Smith is pictured being greeted by the Queen during an audience at Buckingham Palace in 2011. The soldier was awarded the Victoria Cross for actions in Afghanistan in 2006
Ms Roberts swore in a third affidavit she accessed her ex-husband’s RS Group email on April 5 last year but Mr Moses said Telstra records showed she had not.
‘The only person who had access to the RS Group email account on the fifth of April was an email address which is associated with Ms Danielle Scott or her husband,’ Mr Moses said.
Ms Roberts did not provide any affidavit from herself or Ms Scott to explain how or why the email account had been accessed more than 100 times since last year.
Mr Moses had said in August there was ‘clear, albeit circumstantial evidence’ Ms Roberts had not been ‘full and frank in her disclosure’.
He outlined a WhatsApp exchange in June last year in which Ms Scott sent Ms Roberts the name and address of a female solicitor representing Mr Roberts-Smith.
‘Boom, there it is,’ Ms Scott wrote.
Ms Roberts replied: ‘Holy f***… God I love you’.
Ms Scott then made a reference to March 30.
Mr Roberts-Smith has given evidence he separated from his wife in September 2017 and began a six-month affair in April. Ms Roberts is expected to deny there was a separation or having knowledge of the affair until it was over. She is pictured near her Brisbane home
Mr Roberts-Smith has sworn an affidavit stating that on March 30 last year he received an email from the Virgin Velocity rewards store.
The email confirmed delivery of a pair of AirPods he bought as a small gift he bought for the solicitor to recognise her assistance in legal matters and included the solicitor’s address.
Mr Moses said it was open to infer Ms Scott had access to the email from Virgin Velocity.
He has previously revealed emails were allegedly deleted from Mr Roberts-Smith’s inbox and outbox without his consent.
Mr Moses told the court in June a concern arose in April after Nine’s lawyers served Mr Roberts-Smith a notice to produce emails or attachments which were only stored on the email account.
Ms Roberts and Ms Scott are both set to testify for Nine at the defamation trial.
Mr Moses has referred to WhatsApp messages in which Ms Roberts and Ms Scott talked about a book Mr Roberts-Smith had been writing which was stored on the RS Group email account.
Ben Roberts-Smith has taken leave from his job as general manager of Network Seven in Queensland. He is pictured with girlfriend Sarah Matulin on the Gold Coast in January
‘I have the first four chapters of the book, the one that doesn’t exist,’ Ms Roberts texted Ms Scott. ‘He’s a dumb lying c*** and when Jason tables this he’s going to look like a dumb c***.’
Lawyer Jason Murakami, for Ms Roberts, has insisted his client had ‘completely complied’ with all questions about the email account and ‘appropriately and truthfully answered all allegations to the court’.
On Wednesday he said it was ‘pure speculation’ that Ms Roberts had given Ms Scott a password to access the email account.
Mr Roberts-Smith’s application to join Ms Scott and her husband to the proceedings has been listed for hearing on September 17.
Mr Roberts-Smith left Ms Roberts in January 2020 and the former couple sold their home on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast for more than $2million in December that year.
Arthur Moses SC, for Mr Roberts-Smith, has said there was ‘clear, albeit circumstantial evidence’ Ms Roberts had not been ‘full and frank in her disclosure’ to the Federal Court
They settled their divorce in February this year and she gave a statement to Nine a month later outlining the evidence she would give against him.
The couple had rocky periods before they parted, with Mr Roberts-Smith admitting having an affair with a woman known in the defamation trial as Person 17 from October 2017 until April the following year.
Mr Roberts-Smith has given evidence he separated from his wife in September 2017 but they eventually reconciled. Ms Roberts is expected to deny there was a separation or having knowledge of the affair until it was over.
The defamation trial has been adjourned until November 1 due to Covid-19.
