in order to cover up for the fact that you were scared and walked away from backing up Persons 29 and 35?---No. That's incorrect.
And you've read articles about happened on Easter Sunday and have come to believe that is what happened?---No. I know what I saw, and that's the evidence I gave, your Honour.
Well, that is what you think you saw?---That's what I know I saw. That's why I gave that evidence.
457 I do not consider that Person 41 has or had feelings of guilt or shame as suggested to him by the applicant. Even if he did, that would not, to my mind, explain a false story about an Afghan male squatting down adjacent to the tunnel. The connection between the two is not in any way apparent.
458 I will need to come back to Person 41's evidence. I note at this point that he denied being told anything by anybody about what had happened at W108. He was asked about reading media reports and he agreed that he had done that.
459 Person 42 said that after the tunnel had been discovered, the members of the patrol had their weapons trained on it. There were Afghan women present who by their body language were indicating there was something "they didn't want hurt or damaged or something". Members of his patrol were shouting out Pashto phrases in order to have anyone in the tunnel come out. Person 42 recalls men coming out of the tunnel and he said there were at least two, but potentially there could have been three. The men were compliant. They were unarmed and came out freely. The SASR operators present did an initial pat down search. He recalls clearing and searching one of the individuals. They needed to make sure that they did not have any concealed weapons, or any type of suicide vest or fragmentation grenades that could injure the SASR operators. Person 42 said that after he had conducted his search, he passed the individual on, but he could not remember to whom. He could not recall whether the individual was handcuffed, although he said it would be normal practice to handcuff the individual. Person 42 could only recall members of Person 29's patrol being present at that point.
460 The respondents submit that no proposition was put to Person 42 that would explain why he had either misremembered or manufactured evidence about seeing men come out of the tunnel. The respondents went further and said that in the final portion of Person 42's cross-examination he confirmed his evidence without any challenge being made to it. The respondents submit that although it was put to Person 42 that he was not present when the tunnel was discovered, that two or three women were not present and that he was making up his evidence that Person 29 called out to any people in the tunnel, no proposition was put to Person 42 to the
