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Bombshell video emerges after ABC loses struggle crimes defamation case towards high-profile Australian soldier Heston Russell

Bombshell video emerges after ABC loses struggle crimes defamation case towards high-profile Australian soldier Heston Russell


An audio skilled has claimed video footage revealed by the ABC was altered so as to add 5 additional gunshots, making it seem that an Australian soldier was firing at an unarmed Afghan man.

In October 2023, former particular forces commando Heston Russell received his defamation case towards the ABC after a Federal Court docket choose dominated the broadcaster couldn’t show articles it revealed have been within the public curiosity.

Mr Russell sued the ABC and two investigative journalists for defamation over tales that he claimed gave the misunderstanding he was underneath investigation for taking pictures an unarmed prisoner. 

These tales, written and produced by journalists Mark Willacy and Josh Robertson, aired on tv, radio and on-line in October 2020 and on November 19, 2021. 

The defamation case is estimated to have price taxpayers as much as $3.5million in authorized charges on prime of the just about $400,000 in damages paid to Mr Russell

Now, impartial forensic digital audio skilled James Raper has instructed Channel Seven’s Highlight he was ‘shocked’ by what he found when requested to look at a video revealed by the ABC in regards to the alleged struggle crimes. 

Mr Raper examined the video exhibiting six gunshots being fired from a helicopter at an Afghan man, evaluating it with authentic video of the incident taken from the soldier’s helmet digicam.

He mentioned the proof pointed to audio of six gunshots being ‘copied and pasted’ from a unique clip and utilized to video of a single warning shot being fired. 

‘It utterly misrepresents what these troopers have been going by that day,’ he instructed this system.

The ABC instructed Highlight that the broadcaster has ‘eliminated the net video the place an error has been recognized, based mostly on preliminary inspection of the audio’.

In October 2023, former particular forces commando Heston Russell (pictured) received his defamation case towards the ABC after a Federal Court docket choose dominated it couldn’t show articles it revealed have been reported within the public curiosity 

A warning shot about to be fired from a military helicopter in Afghanistan is pictured

A warning shot about to be fired from a army helicopter in Afghanistan is pictured 

‘The ABC is in search of extra data on how this occurred,’ the assertion added.

‘(ABC investigations editor) Jo Puccini, Mark Willacy and Josh Robertson had no function within the manufacturing and enhancing of the net video you might have delivered to our consideration. 

‘Any suggestion that they’ve acted inappropriately or unethically is totally false.’

Each day Mail Australia has contacted the ABC for additional remark.  

Mr Raper mentioned he was ‘shocked’ at what his investigation had discovered. ‘More than that, I used to be fairly shocked,’ he mentioned.

The extremely embellished Mr Russell campaigned for the institution of the Royal Fee into defence and veteran suicides which handed down its findings final week. 

However he additionally needed to undergo his personal private hell over what ABC reported about him.

‘I felt like I used to be combating for my life,’ he mentioned.

In late 2012, Mr Russell was commander of November Platoon in Afghanistan’s Helmand province, which was a Taliban stronghold. 

Footage from the operation confirmed a gunner on the identical helicopter Mr Russell was on firing a warning shot at a person who simply minutes earlier had been firing at Australian troopers. 

Requested why the Afghani man had not simply been shot, Mr Russell mentioned: ‘Nearly all of our missions derive their best worth from capturing insurgents.’

‘After the warning shot, this rebel has run right into a compound and the drone has witnessed him bend over and decide up one thing, he is picked up one thing that appears like a weapon,’ he mentioned.

‘And you will hear me telling my soldier, “shoot him, shoot him”. If we pay attention intently, you may hear that, you then’ll see. That is the footage of my man taking pictures at him within the compound.’

Heston Russell has gone through hell over what the ABC reported about him. 'I felt like I was fighting for my life,' he told Seven Spotlight

Heston Russell has gone by hell over what the ABC reported about him. ‘I felt like I used to be combating for my life,’ he instructed Seven Highlight

However within the footage utilized by the ABC, Mr Raper mentioned the sound of these pictures had been overlaid on the footage of the one warning shot beforehand fired on the man. 

‘That one gunshot traces up completely throughout each the helmet cam footage and the memento video (put collectively by troopers),’ he mentioned.

‘This adjustments after we get to the information clip. If we take heed to it, we’ll be capable of hear six distinct gunshots.’

This taking pictures sequence was not a part of the defamation case taken by Mr Russell because the story about it was revealed by the ABC throughout his trial.

As an alternative, he was suing over a TV report and two on-line articles which included allegations from a US marine named solely as ‘Josh’ that he not directly witnessed Australian troopers execute a hogtied prisoner in Afghanistan in 2012.

Although Mr Russell was not named in that story, he felt he was nonetheless identifiable. 

‘They did title me as a result of they named November Platoon and I used to be the commander,’ he mentioned.

The stories Heston Russell claimed defamed him, written and produced by journalists Mark Willacy (pictured) and Josh Robertson, aired on television, radio and online in October 2020 and more than a year later on November 19, 2021

The tales Heston Russell claimed defamed him, written and produced by journalists Mark Willacy (pictured) and Josh Robertson, aired on tv, radio and on-line in October 2020 and greater than a yr afterward November 19, 2021 

The ABC ran the story regardless of Josh’s personal warnings to reporter Mark Willacy about his credibility in emails. 

‘My reminiscence is fairly hazy so I can not actually provide you with something particular,’ Josh instructed Willacy. 

‘I do not even keep in mind who it was I used to be flying with for certain.’

The ABC additionally mentioned this had occurred at a time that, Mr Russell mentioned, November Platoon was not even in Afghanistan. 

Former special forces commando, Heston Russell (pictured centre), with his lawyer Rebekah Giles (left) and barrister Sue Chrysanthou, SC (right)

Former particular forces commando, Heston Russell (pictured centre), along with his lawyer Rebekah Giles (left) and barrister Sue Chrysanthou, SC (proper)

In the course of the trial, Mr Russell’s barrister Sue Chrysanthou SC, urged the choose to reject the ABC’s public curiosity defence.

‘There is no such thing as a public curiosity in being lied to by the ABC a couple of critical allegation of homicide in relation to a bunch of troopers who weren’t afforded the chance to even reply,’ she instructed the court docket.

Ms Chrysanthou mentioned there was a ‘vital physique of proof’ that demonstrated the articles in query have been a PR train and ‘ego safety’ for Willacy.

She instructed the court docket the articles have been a ‘vindication of his authentic story’. 

Written by bourbiza mohamed

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