An audio expert has claimed video footage published by the ABC was altered to add five extra gunshots, making it appear that an Australian soldier was firing at an unarmed Afghan man.
In October 2023, former special forces commando Heston Russell won his defamation case against the ABC after a Federal Court judge ruled the broadcaster could not prove articles it published were in the public interest.
Mr Russell sued the ABC and two investigative journalists for defamation over stories that he claimed gave the false impression he was under investigation for shooting an unarmed prisoner.
Those 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 is estimated to have cost taxpayers up to $3.5million in legal fees on top of the almost $400,000 in damages paid to Mr Russell
Now, independent forensic digital audio expert James Raper has told Channel Seven’s Spotlight he was ‘shocked’ by what he discovered when asked to examine a video published by the ABC about the alleged war crimes.
Mr Raper examined the video showing six gunshots being fired from a helicopter at an Afghan man, comparing it with original video of the incident taken from the soldier’s helmet camera.
He said the evidence pointed to audio of six gunshots being ‘copied and pasted’ from a different clip and applied to video of a single warning shot being fired.
‘It completely misrepresents what those soldiers were going through that day,’ he told the program.
The ABC told Spotlight that the broadcaster has ‘removed the online video where an error has been identified, based on preliminary inspection of the audio’.
In October 2023, former special forces commando Heston Russell (pictured) won his defamation case against the ABC after a Federal Court judge ruled it could not prove articles it published were reported in the public interest
A warning shot about to be fired from a military helicopter in Afghanistan is pictured
‘The ABC is seeking more information on how this occurred,’ the statement added.
‘(ABC investigations editor) Jo Puccini, Mark Willacy and Josh Robertson had no role in the production and editing of the online video you have brought to our attention.
‘Any suggestion that they have acted inappropriately or unethically is completely false.’
Daily Mail Australia has contacted the ABC for further comment.
Mr Raper said he was ‘surprised’ at what his investigation had found.
‘More than that, I was quite shocked,’ he said.
The highly decorated Mr Russell campaigned for the establishment of the Royal Commission into defence and veteran suicides which handed down its findings last week.
But he also had to go through his own personal hell over what ABC reported about him.
‘I felt like I was fighting for my life,’ he said.
In late 2012, Mr Russell was commander of November Platoon in Afghanistan’s Helmand province, which was a Taliban stronghold.
Footage from the operation showed a gunner on the same helicopter Mr Russell was on firing a warning shot at a man who just minutes earlier had been firing at Australian soldiers.
Asked why the Afghani man had not been shot dead instead of firing a warning shot, Mr Russell said: ‘The majority of our missions derive their greatest value from capturing insurgents.’
‘After the warning shot, this insurgent has run into a compound and the drone has witnessed him bend over and pick up something, he’s picked up something that looks like a weapon,’ he said.
‘And you’ll hear me telling my soldier, ‘shoot him, shoot him’. If we listen closely, you’ll hear that, then you’ll see. That’s the footage of my guy shooting at him in the compound.’
Heston Russell has gone through hell over what the ABC reported. ‘I felt like I was fighting for my life,’ he told Seven Spotlight
Following the warning shot, the Afghani man appears to be no longer armed when he’s next sighted.
‘My signaller sees him, sees he’s unarmed and instead of shooting after I’ve already authorised him to fire, (he) actually tells him to stop and get down,’ Mr Russell said.
The footage showed the reaction of an American soldier on board, throwing his hands up in question.
‘Knowing full well that I’ve authorised him to kill him,’ Mr Russell said.
‘My soldier could have got a kill up, could have got a notch on his belt.
‘But instead my soldier made the decision to save a life … knowing we’re going to land and try to go capture this guy.’
In the 15 second snippet of footage used by the ABC, Mr Raper said the sound of shots had been overlaid on the footage of the single warning shot previously fired at the man.
‘That one gunshot lines up perfectly across both the helmet cam footage and the souvenir video (put together by soldiers),’ he said.
‘This changes when we get to the news clip. If we listen to it, we’ll be able to hear six distinct gunshots.’
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
This shooting sequence was not part of the defamation case taken by Mr Russell as the story about it was published by the ABC during his trial.
Instead, he was suing over a TV report and two online articles which included allegations from a US marine named only as ‘Josh’ that he indirectly witnessed Australian soldiers execute a hogtied prisoner in Afghanistan in 2012.
Though Mr Russell was not named in that story, he felt he was still identifiable.
‘They did name me because they named November Platoon and I was the commander,’ he said.
The ABC ran the story despite Josh’s own warnings to reporter Mark Willacy about his credibility in emails.
‘My memory is pretty hazy so I can’t really give you anything specific,’ Josh told Willacy.
‘I don’t even remember who it was I was flying with for sure.’
The ABC also said this had happened at a time that, Mr Russell said, 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)
During the trial, Mr Russell’s barrister Sue Chrysanthou SC, urged the judge to reject the ABC’s public interest defence.
‘There is no public interest in being lied to by the ABC about a serious allegation of murder in relation to a group of soldiers who were not afforded the opportunity to even respond,’ she told the court.
Ms Chrysanthou said there was a ‘significant body of evidence’ that demonstrated the articles in question were a PR exercise and ‘ego protection’ for Willacy.
She told the court the articles were a ‘vindication of his original story’.
