Ben Roberts-Smith’s chief financial backer, Seven West Media chairman Kerry Stokes, is facing a $13.5 million bill to cover legal costs incurred by The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald in defending his failed defamation case.

In orders made by a Federal Court registrar on Tuesday , the court said the newspapers’ costs of the defamation trial payable by the former Special Air Service corporal and Stokes’ private company, Australian Capital Equity, would be fixed at $13.3 million.

Stokes and Roberts-Smith are also on the hook for almost $225,000 in costs associated with the assessment process itself, bringing the total bill to $13.5 million.

Stokes bankrolled the defamation trial using private funds, including an estimated $15 million in costs for Roberts-Smith’s own legal team. He

See Full Page