Ben Roberts-Smith has been pictured laying poolside in Bali at a $500-a-night resort while awaiting the verdict of his defamation case against Nine newspapers.
According to 9News, the Victoria Cross recipient checked into the hotel on Tuesday.
Many expected Mr Roberts-Smith to attend court today, as he did every single day during the 110-day long trial, even when former comrades and his ex-wife gave evidence against him.
However, he is not legally required to be in court for the decision.
The proceedings were officially dismissed, after Justice Besanko found the articles proved some, not all of the defamatory imputations, in a major win for the newspapers.
There was silence across the courtroom as Justice Besanko found the decorated veteran was a murderer and a war criminal in his conclusions.
He said the most serious imputations alleged in the articles had been proven, and he upheld the defence of contextual truth for the remainder.
Justice Besanko found allegations of threats and domestic violence could not be proven, but was “satisfied” the defence made out the defence of contextual truth.
While not every murder allegation was established by the newspapers, the judge found the two key killings had taken place.
Justice Besanko found Mr Roberts-Smith’s actions on the mission to Whiskey 108 on Easter Sunday in 2009 were found to be substantially true, meaning he was found to have allegedly “frog marched” a man with a prosthetic leg out of a secret tunnel at the compound.
He has been found by the court to have shot the man with a machine gun in the back.
Justice Besanko also found the murder of Ali Jan at Darwan in September 2012 to be substantially true, where Mr Roberts-Smith allegedly kicked the detained shepherd off a cliff while he was handcuffed.It is alleged Mr Roberts-Smith marched the farmer to stand above the 10-metre-high cliff before kicking him onto a dry riverbed below.