Adman John Singleton has explained why he took out a full-page newspaper ad in The Australian to back Victoria Cross winner Ben Roberts-Smith.
The Advertising Hall of Fame inductee titled the ad: An apology to Ben Roberts-Smith. From a coward.
He told Sky News’s Erin Molan he was “amazed” at the reaction to the letter.
Ben Roberts-Smith, a former SAS soldier, and Seven Queensland general manager, lost a landmark defamation case against The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and The Canberra Times over articles accusing him of war crimes in Afghanistan.
In the Federal Court, Justice Anthony Besankoon found, on the balance of probabilities, that Roberts-Smith was complicit in the murder of unarmed prisoners.
“He (When Ben Roberts-Smith) goes on six missions to Afghanistan … six missions, which is cruelty in itself, six missions, he is then faced with a terrible decision,” Singleton said.
“In that moment you have to make a decision. He made a decision. And now the allegation is those were innocent victims. Maybe they were. Maybe they weren’t, we’ll never know, and he’s now branded, instead of a VC and an all-time hero … a war criminal.”
“So I think it is absolutely ridiculous that we demean a great war hero.”
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