Spy Shayler gets six months jail for revealing security secrets

RENEGADE British spy David Shayler was yesterday sentenced to six months in prison after he was convicted of revealing security secrets.

Shayler, 36, who remained seated throughout the sentencing, looked resigned as he stood up and was led from the dock at the Old Bailey.

Trial Judge Mr Justice Moses said the defendant had shown "blinkered arrogance" in committing the offences.

The former MI5 agent was found guilty on Monday of disclosing information, documents and information from telephone taps in breach of the Official Secrets Act.

The prosecution said he had potentially placed the lives of dozens of secret agents at risk.

Mr Justice Moses said he had taken into account the three-and-a-half months Shayler had spent in a French jail while the Government tried unsuccessfully to extradite him.

The judge said he was prepared to accept that Shayler was motivated by a desire to expose what he thought was wrong not by money.

But he added: "Your own actions demonstrate a lack of any real insight into what you were doing or any intelligent foresight into its consequences. It is, contrary to your own belief, that blinkered arrogance which has led you here today."

The former spy copied 28 files on seven topics, including several on Libyan links with the IRA and Soviet funding of the Communist Party of Great Britain, before leaving MI5 in October 1996.

The documents were said to be "chock-a-block" with agents' names and other sensitive information. They were handed to the Mail on Sunday newspaper who paid Shayler £40,000.

The judge told Shayler he should be grateful to his girlfriend Annie Machon for removing an impression he had made the disclosures in order to get into journalism. Earlier, Ms Machon old the court: "He feels passionately about a number of fundamental issues."

Ms Machon, who left MI5 at the same time a Shayler in October 1996, said they had both suffered from stress-related illnesses as a result of the last five years.

Shayler's parents, Ron and Anne said they were "very upset" at the jail sentence. Mrs Shayler said she felt the sentence imposed was unjust but added: ''We are relieved it was not two years on each count."

She added: "Given the fact that he has already done three months in jail in France, I am sure he will cope very well in prison once he has got over the initial shock."

Mr Shayler said: "He is a very strong character. He wouldn't have been in MI5 if he wasn't."