In the defamation lawsuit brought by former Victoria Cross recipient Ben Roberts-Smith against three prominent newspapers, an Australian court on Thursday issued a summary verdict.

The court found that Roberts-Smith, who was awarded the prestigious Victoria Cross for his bravery, “probably” killed unarmed civilians during his deployments in Afghanistan, as reported by the newspapers in 2018.

In a statement read out by Judge Anthony Besanko in Sydney, it was determined that the allegations made by the newspapers were established as substantially true on the balance of probabilities, the evidential standard for a civil trial.

The judge specifically highlighted instances where Roberts-Smith was accused of kicking an unarmed and handcuffed Afghan man off a cliff in 2012 and subsequently ordering two soldiers to kill the severely injured man.