By Jonathan Brocklebank A farcical Le Carré caricature, but traitor could have proved a deadly threat to the defence of the UK

IN his evidence he said he counted himself as ‘a proud Scot’. But the large flag in the corner of David Smith’s living room was not a Saltire. It was a Russian Federation one. Nearby was a life-size Russian toy Rottweiler wearing a Soviet military hat. There were Russian books and ornaments, Russian military memorabilia on his walls – even a model Russian Lada car.

It was a lair which the master espionage novelist John le Carré would surely have dismissed as a caricature. Real spies were never this obvious.

But 58-year-old former RAF serviceman Smith was indeed a spy – a paid informant for the Russian state – and, despite his lack of subtlety, he succeeded in disclosing secrets which carried ‘potentially catastrophic’ consequences.

Among his stash of documents were correspondence to then-British prime minister Boris Johnson from ministers.

His methods were crude. He would show up at his workplace in the British embassy in Berlin at night and take pictures of secret documents.

He filmed private offices, making sure he captured in his footage photos of his colleagues’ family and friends on their desks.

He used a small camera in his security guard’s kiosk to record CCTV images of a Russian ‘defector’ called ‘Dmitry’ who was visiting the embassy – unaware Dmitry was a roleplayer in a sting to uncover Smith as a spy.

How, then, did a lonely ex-serviceman from Paisley become inveigled in a world of espionage which found him systematically betraying his country in return for payment from an unseen Russian ‘handler’.

The collection of military memorabilia built up over decades certainly gives a clue to his obsessions as does his fascination with the conspiracy theories espoused online by Alex Jones’s InfoWars and David Icke.

‘I just like both sides of the story,’ he said by way of explanation.

Depression was another explanation – along with heavy drinking. Then there was the fact that his wife Svetlana, a Ukrainian, had returned to her home country.

BUT, if you believe Smith – which Mr Justice Wall did not – it was the Covid pandemic which pushed him over the edge.

He said: ‘I was angry that everyone was sitting at home with full pay when we were having to go to work every day.

‘I just went downhill after that. I would fly off the handle at the slightest thing. Call that spoiled child, obstinate prat maybe – I was full of my own self-importance. I wanted to teach the embassy a lesson.’

Smith had spent 12 years in the RAF before moving to Crawley in West Sussex and getting jobs at Gatwick Airport.

He has a grown-up daughter from an earlier relationship and had been married to his second wife for 20 years, the Old Bailey was told. His life, he said, fell apart after his move to Berlin to work as a security guard at the British embassy.

Feeling sorry for himself and drinking seven pints a day after his wife had departed, he claimed he grew increasingly angry with his employers and decided to embarrass them.

And yet, according to the evidence heard at the Old Bailey, Smith’s spying activities began in 2018. The pandemic was still two years away.

The judge found that was the year he began copying classified material with a view to handing it over ‘at some stage’.

His contact, said the judge, was ‘someone at the Russian embassy’ who acted as a conduit through which the secret documents were passed on.

But it was not until November 2020 that anyone twigged to Smith’s treacherous campaign. That was when he sent a letter to a member of military staff at the Russian embassy. When it ended up in the hands of police and security agents its contents made it clear the letter was no one-off. Clearly, there was ongoing contact.

Another, earlier letter, was discovered. Between them they disclosed the name of a diplomat who had worked in Russia – known in court as X – and details of colleagues.

An investigation was launched and the following year the sting operation was conceived.

Smith was to prove an easy mark. It was on August 5, 2021 that an embassy staff member asked him to escort the undercover operative posing as ‘Dmitry’ into the building.

He walked into the trap set for him almost immediately by making a copy of a document ‘Dmitry’ had brought and keeping sim card packaging with the would be defector’s phone number on it rather than destroying it as instructed.

Later a covert camera caught him using a camera to record the CCTV of Dmitry’s visit. Smith can be heard saying ‘If he works at the embassy, they will know him.’

The judge said these words suggested Smith intended to provide the images to the Russians so they could investigate.

It was, of course, the behaviour the undercover operation would have expected of a spy: Smith was gathering intel on this apparent traitor visiting the British embassy in order to feed it back to his Russian contact.

Days later, at a tram stop in Berlin, Smith was approached by another role-player – Irina. Posing as a Russian intelligence officer, she questioned him about someone passing on information ‘damaging’ to Russia.

Smith said he would need to ‘check with someone’ before speaking to her. This, the court concluded, was an apparent reference to his handler.

COMMANDER Richard Smith, who is head of the Metropolitan Police’s SO15 counter-terrorism command, said: ‘The operation… was meticulously planned, executed by dedicated and skilled undercover operatives and role players and it appears he did not suspect a thing while exploiting the opportunities presented to him to illicitly gain as much information as possible on a man he seemed to believe was a Russian informant working with the UK.

‘Had that been genuine, that person would have been placed at significant risk.’

He added: ‘The stakes were very high – the prospect of any future prosecution [rested] largely on the success of the covert operation in order for us to gather evidence.’

Smith was promptly arrested and a search took place at his

home and workplace. Inside his work locker was a cartoon of Russian president Vladimir Putin with his hands around the neck of former German chancellor Angela Merkel who wore Nazi uniform. This was exactly the false rhetoric which Putin would invoke to invade Ukraine.

Prosecutor Alison Morgan, KC, said it neatly summed up Smith’s pro Russian stance. ‘It is precisely what Russia was saying as its justification for amassing vast amounts of troops on the border, and it is a cartoon that depicts Angela Merkel as a Nazi.’

Smith’s flat in Potsdam, meanwhile, was a virtual shrine to the Russian state.

Police found €800 there and the court heard he had stopped withdrawing money from his bank – suggesting the money he lived on was coming from elsewhere. Smith’s electronic devices revealed a substantial cache of classified information.

The Met’s Richard Smith said: ‘Analysis of his devices found images including a large number of photographs of British embassy employees, in some cases with their names.

‘There were also images of rooms and equipment inside the embassy, details of visits, confidential letters… and names and contact details of military personnel.

‘Officers also found a number of videos showing Smith giving walkarounds of the embassy.

‘These were taken in late June 2021. In the video, Smith captured the layout of the embassy noticeboards and information about staff, the insides of certain drawers, certain files stored in trays, certain security measures.’

There were, naturally, ‘feelings of anger, betrayal and upset’ among his embassy colleagues in Berlin.

Most of all there was alarm at the implications of their details being shared with a hostile state. According to the Met commander, the information Smith sought to share with the Russian state ‘did raise significant risk to UK interests and potentially significant risks to individuals working at that embassy’.

Smith was extradited back to the UK in April last year and, while in custody in Belmarsh prison pending his court hearing he was able to continue to collect military memorabilia in the form of merchandise relating to Ukraine’s far Right volunteer military unit the Azov Battalion. He later denied far-right sympathies.

YET his crimes, said the judge, were certainly motivated by ideology. He said Smith had ‘developed anti-British and anti-Western feelings’ during his time at the embassy and that co-workers had heard him criticise both Britain and Germany.

On Smith’s telling of it, he had simply wanted to give his employer ‘a slap’ for the way he had been treated during lockdown.

‘You were paid by Russia for your treachery,’ the judge told him, although he noted there were no ‘life-changing’ sums.

Mr Justice Wall concluded: ‘He was motivated by his antipathy towards this country and intended to damage this country’s interests by acting as he did.’

He could have resigned from a job he hated, said the judge. The reason he did not was so he could continue being a spy for Russia.