An audio expert claims that video footage released by the ABC was edited to add five extra shots, making it appear as if an Australian soldier was firing at an unarmed Afghan man.
In October 2023, former commando Heston Russell won his defamation case against the ABC after a federal court judge ruled that the broadcaster failed to prove that the articles it published were in the public interest.
Mr Russell sued the ABC and two investigative journalists for libel over stories he claimed gave the false impression he was being investigated for the shooting of an unarmed prisoner.
These stories, written and produced by journalists Mark Willacy and Josh Robertson, aired on television, radio and online in October 2020 and on November 19, 2021.
The defamation case has cost taxpayers an estimated $3.5 million in legal fees, on top of the nearly $400,000 in damages paid to Mr. Russell.
Now independent forensic digital audio expert James Raper has told Channel Seven’s In the spotlight He was “shocked” by what he discovered when asked to watch a video published by the ABC about the alleged war crimes.
Mr Raper viewed the video showing six shots being fired from a helicopter at an Afghan man and compared it to the original video of the incident taken by the soldier’s helmet-mounted camera.
He said the evidence indicated that audio of six gunshots had been “copy-pasted” from another clip and applied to video of one warning shot.
“It gives a completely wrong picture of what those soldiers went through that day,” he told the program.
The ABC told Spotlight that the broadcaster “has removed the online video in which an error was identified based on a preliminary inspection of the audio”.
In October 2023, former commando Heston Russell (pictured) won his libel case against the ABC after a Federal Court judge ruled that the ABC failed to prove that the articles it published were reported in the public interest.
A warning shot is seen about to be fired from a military helicopter in Afghanistan
“The ABC is seeking more information about how this could have happened,” the statement said.
‘(ABC Investigations Editor) Jo Puccini, Mark Willacy and Josh Robertson played no role in the production or editing of the online video you brought to our attention.
“Any suggestion that they acted inappropriately or unethically is completely false.”
Daily Mail Australia has contacted the ABC for further comment.
Mr. Raper said that he ‘‘surprised’ at what his research had yielded.
‘M“But more than that, I was quite shocked,” he said.
The senior Mr Russell campaigned for the establishment of a Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide, which released its findings last week.
But he also had to go through personal hell because of what ABC reported about him.
According to the ABC, Mr. Russell was the one who shot at the insurgents, which he strongly denied.
“I felt like I was fighting for my life,” he said.
In late 2012, Russell was commander of November Platoon in Afghanistan’s Helmand province, a Taliban stronghold.
Footage from the operation showed a gunman in the same helicopter as Russell firing a warning shot at a man who had been shooting at Australian soldiers minutes earlier.
“This guy was literally just on the back of a motorcycle with his buddy and was shooting at two of my teams that were on the ground,” Russell said.
When asked why the Afghan man was not shot dead instead of a warning shot being fired, Russell replied: “Most of our missions are most valuable when we capture insurgents.”
“After the warning shot, this insurgent ran into a compound and the drone saw him bend over and pick up something. He picked up something that looked like a weapon,” he said.
“And you hear me say to my soldier, ‘Shoot him, shoot him.’ If we listen carefully, you will hear it, you will see it. That is the footage of my man shooting him in the compound.”
Heston Russell has been through hell over what the ABC reported. ‘I felt like I was fighting for my life,’ he told Seven Spotlight
After the warning shot is fired, it appears the Afghan man is no longer armed when he is next seen.
“My signalman sees him, sees he is unarmed and instead of shooting (even though I have already given him permission to shoot), he tells him to stop and get out,” Mr Russell said.
The footage shows the reaction of an American soldier on board, who throws his hands in the air in question.
“Knowing that I gave him permission to kill him,” Mr. Russell said.
My soldier could have committed murder, gotten a notch in his belt.
“But instead my soldier decided to save a life… knowing that we would land and try to capture this man.”
In the 15-second clip of footage used by the ABC, Raper said the sound of the shots was added to footage of the single warning shot fired earlier at the man.
“That one shot matches perfectly with both the helmet camera footage and the souvenir video (compiled by soldiers),” he said.
“This changes when we get to the news clip. When we listen to it, we can hear six separate gunshots.”
The stories that Heston Russell claimed portrayed him in a bad light, 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 shooting was not part of Mr Russell’s libel case as the story about it was published by the ABC during his trial.
Instead, he filed a lawsuit following a TV report and two online articles in which a US Marine, identified only as “Josh”, claimed he had indirectly witnessed the execution of a bound prisoner by Australian soldiers in Afghanistan in 2012.
Although Mr. Russell was not named in the story, he felt he was still recognizable.
“They called me that because that’s what they called November Platoon and I was the commander,” he said.
The ABC ran the story despite warnings Josh had made in emails to reporter Mark Willacy about his credibility.
“My memory is kind of hazy, so I can’t really tell you anything specific,” Josh told Willacy.
“I’m not even sure who I was flying with anymore.”
According to the ABC, this happened at a time when, according to Russell, November Platoon was not even in Afghanistan yet.
Former Special Forces Commando Heston Russell (pictured centre) with his lawyer Rebekah Giles (left) and barrister Sue Chrysanthou, SC (right)
During the trial, Mr Russell’s lawyer, Sue Chrysanthou SC, urged the judge to reject the ABC’s public interest defence.
“There is no public interest in the ABC lying to us about a serious allegation of murder involving a group of soldiers who were not even given the opportunity to respond,” she told the court.
Ms Chrysanthou said there was a “considerable amount of evidence” to show the articles in question were a PR exercise and “protected Willacy’s ego”.
She told the court the articles provided “corroboration of his original story”.
