Ben Roberts-Smith has been released from jail, but had to wait five hours extra because of a courthouse paperwork delay that prevented his parents lodging a $250,000 bond for his bail.
Len and Sue Roberts-Smith waited at the Downing Centre registry office for the afternoon for court officials to accept a cheque, a representative of the family said.
“They said they don’t have the court file,” the representative said. “We’ve been waiting two hours.”
The SAS veteran was granted bail at 12.15pm by Judge Gregory Grogin on the condition he surrender his passport and his father pays the court a surety, or bond.
He has been charged with five counts of war crimes — murder, and faces life imprisonment.
The paperwork delay left him stuck as Silverwater Correction Complex in Western Sydney until around 5.30pm.
He intends to return to his home in south-east Queensland today. His trial could take years to begin, and the defence has already flagged that it may argue he is incapable of receiving a fair trial because of the extensive publicity.
A court official said the wait may have been due to a delay entering a long list of bail conditions into the court’s computer systems.
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