Ben Roberts-Smith VC, Australia’s most decorated living soldier, murdered or was complicit in the murder of multiple unarmed civilians while serving in the military in Afghanistan, a federal court judge has found.

Sitting in Sydney, Justice Anthony Besanko found that, on the balance of probabilities, Roberts-Smith kicked a handcuffed prisoner off a cliff in Darwan in 2012 before ordering a subordinate Australian soldier to shoot the injured man dead.