Australian decorated hero quits corporate job after Afghan war crime revelations

A visitor looks at a display featuring decorated war veteran Ben Roberts-Smith at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, Australia (Rod McGuirk/AP)

Ben Roberts-Smith, Australia’s most decorated living war veteran, has quit his corporate job after a civil court blamed him for unlawfully killing four Afghans, escalating calls for the tarnished national hero to be stripped of his revered Victoria Cross medal.

Mr Roberts-Smith, who retired from Australia’s elite Special Air Service Regiment a decade ago, quit his job as state manager of Seven West Media after losing a landmark defamation suit on Thursday against newspapers that had accused him of an array of war crimes.