‘Abuse’ spy’s ex claims MI5 breached her human rights

MI5 faces a legal battle with the former girlfriend of an allegedly abusive former spy, with the woman claiming the intelligence agency breached her human rights by enabling her abuse.

The woman, known only as Beth, has launched a legal complaint and claim in the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT), an independent judicial body created to handle complaints about unlawful interference and human rights violations by the intelligence services.

The Centre for Women’s Justice (CWJ), which is acting on Beth’s behalf, said it was also exploring possible action against a police force that it claims “failed to take action against the perpetrator despite repeated reports”.

In a statement yesterday, Beth said: “I hope that this will cause the police to reopen the case against [X] and actually do something about his crimes, none of which have been properly investigated.

The CWJ said that Beth will “seek to argue that MI5’S conduct may have breached her rights under Articles 2, 3, 8 and 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights, in that by recruiting and affording protection to X, they were effectively enabling X to subject her to serious violence... with impunity”.

Kate Ellis, Beth’s solicitor at the CWJ, claimed that the case “raises a number of issues regarding the state’s protection – whether intentionally, or through neglect – of those who hold extreme misogynistic views and pose a risk of serious violence towards women and girls”.

On Thursday, the BBC revealed that Beth had been subjected to long-term abuse by the former MI5 informant. They also reported he had abused another former partner before moving to the UK and showed video footage of him attacking Beth with a machete.

The man was a far-right extremist with a violent past when he was recruited by MI5. He was reportedly paid for infiltrating extremist groups in the UK.

Beth told the BBC that he had exerted “complete control” over her.

“At the end of the relationship he dictated my every waking hour – where I went, who I saw, how I worked, what I did at work, what I wore,” she said.

X moved abroad to work for a foreign intelligence agency while under police investigation.

The BBC was prevented from revealing his identity by a High Court ruling.

A Home Office spokesman said: “As a matter of long-standing policy we will not comment on security or intelligence.”