BEN Roberts Smith’s attendance at Saturday’s Currumbin RSL Anzac Day dawn service at Elephant Rock on the Gold Coast’s Currumbin Beach, attracted national media attention and prompted a wave of well-wishers to swamp him afterwards.
“Their sons (who went to war) are the ones I’m thinking about today, because that’s what this is all about,” Roberts Smith told reporters.
“And we shouldn’t be able to forget their sacrifice because it is enduring – I think about it every day, they live with that. They’ve given that to us. We owe them a deep debt.”
Asked if he had any doubts about attending because of his charges, he responded without hesitation: “I never thought about not coming – I was always going to be here.”
A banner with the words “we support BRS” was seen hanging from a balcony on a house on a hill overlooking the ceremony.
He was seen with his girlfriend, Sarah Matulin, among others in the crowd watching the service.
Mr Roberts-Smith has been living in Queensland after being released from Silverwater jail in Sydney to await trial for five counts of the war crime of murder.
While he has yet to enter a plea, he has strenuously denied the allegations, which stem from alleged actions during his service in Afghanistan.
The former director of the Australian National War Memorial, Brendan Nelson, strongly defended Mr Roberts-Smith’s attendance at the ceremony when approached by media.
Dr Nelson, a former leader of the federal Liberal Opposition and now a senior executive at aerospace company Boeing, told the ABC at a dawn service event in London: “Ben Roberts-Smith, as far as I’m concerned, is a national hero.”
