Flawed Hero

The shocking story of Australia's most highly decorated soldier, Ben Roberts-Smith VC MG, and the defamation trial of the century. It took seven years, 120 days of trial hearings, 41 witnesses, and $35 million in legal costs for the court to determine to a civil level that Roberts-Smith is a war criminal.


***NOW WITH A NEW EPILOGUE BRINGING THE STORY UP TO DATE***



Chris Masters is joint winner of the 2023 Walkley Honour for Media Freedom for his investigation of the Ben Roberts-Smith story 

Winner of the Australian Political Book of the Year Award 2024 

Shortlisted for the Anzac Memorial Trustees' Military History Prize in the NSW Premier's History Awards 2024 

Shortlisted for the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards 2024


With a Victoria Cross and Medal for Gallantry, Ben Roberts-Smith was the most highly decorated Australian soldier, the best of the best. When he returned to civilian life, he became a poster boy for a nation hungry for warrior heroes. He embodied the myth of the classic Anzac, seven-foot-tall and bulletproof. But as his public reputation continued to grow, inside the army rumours were circulating.


Gold Walkley Award winning journalist Chris Masters was the first to investigate the rumours of summary executions, bloodings and bullying, and began to examine more closely the man we wanted to hero-worship. When the stories hit the headlines, and with a billionaire media baron's backing, Ben Roberts-Smith sued. So commenced the defamation trial of the century, a courtroom contest of tightrope tactics and fierce wit, which Ben Roberts-Smith lost. 


Chris Masters tells the extraordinary story of Ben Roberts-Smith, from the battlegrounds of Afghanistan to the frontlines of the Federal Court trial that established on the balance of probabilities he committed war crimes.


'For those who believe unquestioningly in the ANZAC spirit, this book offers an important corrective hero worship must not be blind.' - Sydney Morning Herald


'A controversial and sobering story, Masters' long search for any truth behind rumours of alleged war crimes by war hero Ben Roberts-Smith VC MG in Afghanistan, and the defamation trial which followed, is unprecedented in our military history.' - Denise Carlyon 


'Powerful, passionate and often moving narrative' - Inside Story 


'An account of reporters taking on the legal system, the political establishment and much of the Australian media and - against those almost impossible odds - somehow emerging with the story' - The Saturday Paper 


'If there was a Victoria Cross for bravery in journalism, Chris Masters deserves to receive it.' - Phillip Adams 


'War has always been the stuff of myth-making from the Anzacs to the present day. [Flawed Hero] shakes the blind beliefs of those who unquestionably only see what they want to see a war hero.' - The Conversation 


'There's seriously no one else in Australia with the knowledge that Chris Masters has in relation to Australian Special Forces in Afghanistan.' - Former Commando Major