David McBride: Australian war crimes whistleblower pleads guilty

A whistleblower who helped expose allegations of Australian war crimes in Afghanistan has pleaded guilty to leaking classified information.

David McBride was due to face trial next week, but changed his plea after a legal ruling scuppered his defence.

McBride - an ex-military lawyer - said he felt a moral duty to speak up after his internal complaints were ignored.

A landmark inquiry later found evidence that Australian forces had unlawfully killed 39 Afghans during the war.

McBride admits he gave troves of documents to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), which underpinned a series of reports in 2017 called The Afghan Files.

The series gave unprecedented insight into the operations of Australia's elite special forces in Afghanistan, and contained allegations of war crimes.

McBride was arrested in 2019, and faced charges of theft of Commonwealth property, breaching the Defence Act and unauthorised disclosure of information.