David Ballantyne Smith, 58, a former guard at the British Embassy in Berlin who passed secret information to the Russian secret service, was sentenced by a London court to 13 years and two months in prison.
Smith copied and transmitted secret information to Russian curators for three years. Judge Mark Wall said Smith passed on the information on his own initiative and was motivated by his anti-British and pro-Russian views.
“The Russians paid you for your betrayal,” the judge said.
Nick Price, head of special crimes and counter-terrorism at the UK Public Prosecution Service, commenting on the case, said Smith was motivated by “greed and hatred of our country”.
David Smith said in court that he started selling state secrets because he was depressed, lonely and an alcoholic.
Smith provided Russian intelligence with the names, photos and personal details of embassy personnel. He also photographed documents on embassy staff desks and copied footage from embassy security cameras. Among the documents Smith photographed were confidential documents, such as a letter from then Trade Secretary Liz Truss to then British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Smith also filmed his walk around the embassy on his phone, which showed the layout of the building and its offices.
Smith’s colleagues said they heard Smith criticize the UK and Germany and thought he was sympathetic to Russia and Putin. In conversations, he openly supported pro-Russian forces in Ukraine.
According to prosecutor Alison Morgan, in November 2020, Smith sent a letter on British Embassy letterhead to Major General Sergei Chukhrov, the Russian military attache in Berlin. The letter contained personal information about embassy personnel, as well as photographs of documents from a senior embassy official dealing with Russia.
The discovery of this letter prompted the British and German authorities to carry out a joint investigation.
During the trial, details of the special operation were revealed, following which Smith was arrested.
First, an undercover MI5 agent, posing as a Russian defector named Dimitri, came to the British Embassy in Berlin. Smith was on gate duty at the time. “Dmitry” said he had confidential information for British authorities. After that, another undercover agent approached Smith, introducing himself as “Irina”. She said the Russian authorities needed help because someone “gave the British people information that could harm Russia”.
In hidden camera footage shown in court, “Irina” asks if Smith can help her and can he see her again? – To which Smith replies: “I need to speak with a person, and as soon as this person can confirm the information, I am ready to meet again.”
Showing the footage to the court, the prosecutor said Smith “could only have in mind a conversation with someone at the Russian embassy to verify the identity of ‘Irina’, and that is the evidence that Smith had direct contact with Russian intelligence.
Smith was arrested the day after the meeting with “Irina”, in August 2021. During a search of his home in Potsdam, a USB key was found containing a copy of the document given by “Dmitry” and several photographs of the staff embassy and diplomatic passports.
