Beyond Reasonable Doubt: The Ben Roberts-Smith Case | Philip Dunn KC

He is Australia's most decorated living soldier — a Victoria Cross recipient charged with the alleged murder of five unarmed Afghan detainees. But does losing a civil defamation case make Ben Roberts-Smith a convicted war criminal? Adam Shand thinks not, and he's found one of the country's most experienced criminal defence barristers to explain why. Philip Dunn KC has spent a career in the criminal courts defending the highest-profile cases in Australian legal history. In this episode, he unpacks the critical difference between a finding on the balance of probabilities and the far higher bar of proof beyond reasonable doubt — and why confusing the two is dangerous. He also examines the dramatic and arguably prejudicial arrest of Roberts-Smith, the extraordinary use of four indemnified witnesses, the absence of forensic evidence and the very real threat that relentless media coverage poses to a fair trial.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.