UK embassy guard 'paid for treachery' by Moscow, says judge

David Ballantyne Smith meets with ‘Irina’, an MI5 officer posing as a member of Russia's military intelligence service, on August 9, 2021, in this still image taken from a covert camera video played in court at the Old Bailey, in London, Britain, on February 13, 2023. Picture: Metropolitan Police/ REUTERS

Published Feb 16, 2023

London - A British judge ruled on Thursday that a former security guard at the UK's Berlin embassy had an "ongoing relationship" with Moscow and was "paid for treachery".

David Ballantyne Smith, 58, faces a jail term of up to 14 years after passing sensitive materials to the Russian embassy in Germany and being caught in a sting operation.

He has pleaded guilty to spying and will be sentenced Friday at London's Old Bailey court.

Judge Mark Wall rejected Smith's claims that he had passed information to Moscow only twice in order to cause "embarrassment" to the UK, saying his answers were "incredible".

Wall said he would sentence Smith on the basis that he had an "ongoing relationship with someone at the Russian embassy".

The judge said that he was also "sure that in the period before that, in 2018 and 2019, the defendant was collecting information from the embassy with a view to passing it on at some stage".

Smith "was paid for his treachery and he was motivated by his antipathy towards this country and intended to damage this country's interests by acting as he did," the judge added.

The prosecution has called for Smith to face a long sentence after he pleaded guilty to eight charges of "committing an act prejudicial to the safety or interests of the state".

The military veteran, originally from Paisley in western Scotland, had worked at the Berlin embassy for five years.

Prosecutors said Smith first wrote to the Russian embassy in 2020, revealing details of embassy staff and suggesting further contact.

After the UK and German authorities found out about this, they formed a plot to try to catch Smith in the act.

David Ballantyne Smith takes video of CCTV monitors at the security kiosk of the British Embassy in Berlin, Germany, on August 3, 2020, in this still image taken from a video played in court at the Old Bailey, in London, Britain, on February 13, 2023. Picture: Metropolitan Police/ REUTERS

Smith was told that a Russian citizen called Dmitry – in reality a UK agent – wanted to visit the British embassy to pass on sensitive information.

Smith then filmed CCTV footage of "Dmitry" inside the embassy and took packaging from a phone SIM card given to him.

Another UK agent later approached Smith, pretending to be Irina, an operative in Russia's GRU military intelligence service.

In a covert video, Smith told her: "I don't trust the b******s I work for" and "I don't want to be in Germany. I'm stuck in the land of Nazi b******s".

He was arrested at his flat soon afterwards in August 2021 and later extradited to the UK.

AFP