THE TREASON OF GEOFFREY PRIME

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000505220011-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 11, 2010
• Sequence Number: 11
• Publication Date: November 13, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/11: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505220011-7
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4..L -
ON ?LSE
BRITAIN
Br tain's late-s: and possibly most dis-
t racefui spy scandal. which broke into
the open with the conviction this week of
Geoffrey Prime at the Old Bailey, was
not even unearthed by the professional
spy-catchers of whose work Prime made a
mockery for 14 years. The chronology of
his disgrace is below. On Wednesday. the
Lord Chief Justice sentenced Prime to 35
years for spying and three years for
moiesung young girls. It was only after/'
ordinary policemen of the West Mercia
force had detected his sexual crimes that
his swing came to light.
Prime pleaded guilty. There was no
contest in court, so the available facts of
his treachery are only those which the
security services have allowed to be
known. But 35 years is a very long
sentence indeed. and is a pointer to the
prauirv of his crime. In recent years. it has
been exceeded for a spy only by the
sentence given to George Blake, a Rus-
I
The treason of Geoffrey Prime
TIE ECONON,IST
13 NOVE BE-? 1982
sian agent inside Britain's secret intelli-
gence service. M16. Blake got 42 years in
1961 and managed to escape in 1966.
Lord Chief Justice Lane said Prime had
done "incalculable harm". That seems to
put him in the league of the British
diplomats. Guy Burgess and Donald Ma-
clean, who defected to Moscow in 1951;
Kim Philby. a top man in M16 who
headed for Russia in 196: and is now a
KGB general; or Anthony Blunt, un-
masked in 1979 after a long career in
public life (culminating in his appoint-
ment as master of the Queen's pictures),
who now lives, disgraced, in London.
Prime joins a long list of deplorable
security breaches in Britain since Hitler's
war-many at the heart of the country's
security services.
The policemen who had traced three
cases of sexual assault to Prime found in
his house a card index of 2287 young
girls whom he had identified as potential
Prime 's progress: 14 years a spy
May. 1964: Geoffrey Prime oualifies as
Russian linguist while serving with Roy-
ai Air Force; posted to secret work at
RAF Gatow in West Berlin.
Januan?. 1968: offers his services to the
Russians in Berlin out of "sympathy for
the Soviet regime".
January-July, 1968: provides Russians
with RAF secrets in Berlin.
July, 1968: leaves RAF, employed as
Russian linguist in British intelligence.
August, 1968: returns to East Berlin for
"extensive training in the arts of the
spy'.
September, 1968: joins the foreign office
in London fully equipped as a Russian
agent (code-name: "Rowlands") receiv-
ing instructions by radio.
1974: second positive vening by British
intelligence. Re-equipped and paid by
Russians.
Spring. 1975: promoted by British and
cleared for access to more sensitive
material.
September. 1975: travels to Vienna with
toe secret material for the Russians. who
give him further briefing and more pay.
March. 1976: transferred to government
communications headquarters (GCHQ)
at Cheltenham.
May. 1976: returns to Vienna for further
Russian briefing; receives #1.000. offer
of a pension and rank of colonel in the
KGB if he ever decides to defect.
November. 1976: promoted to section
head at Cheltenham with access to "mat-
ters of the utmost secrecy".
June. 1977: marries for the second time.
September, 1977: decides to defect but
changes mind: instead resigns post at
GCHQ, taking 500 photographs of top-
secret documents. .-
April 30, 1980: makes sexual attack on
11-year-old girl in her parents' home in
Gloucester.
April, 1980: Russians invite him to
Vienna.
May, 1980: travels to Vienna with his
500 photographs and spends three days
being debriefed on a Russian cruise ship
on the Danube; given #600.
May 28. 1981: makes violent sexual
victims. They also found the -hole para-
phernalia of- the cheap novel spy..-one-
time pads (the basis of unbreakable cod-
ed messages), microdot equipment, a
short-wave radio. a briefcase with secret
bits and pieces and even some highly-
sensitive documents from General Com.
munications Headquarters (GCHQ), the
government listening post at Cheltenham
in Gloucestershire, for which Prime had
formerly worked.
The Cheltenham headquarters, where
Prime was employed as a senior Russian
linguist, has for several decades collabor-
ated closely with America's National Se-
curity Agency in the interception and
analysis of communications and with the
Canadians and Australians too. Between
them, they vacuum the world's airwaves
for anything, particularly from Russia,
which would help the security of the west.
Those allies now have good reason for
any future lack of confidence in the value
of collaboration with the British. Every-
attack on 1!-vear-old girl in her parents'
home in Worcestershire.
November. 1981: flies to Berlin for fur-
ther debriefing at Potsdam; returns to
England with #4,000 and further sup-
plies of espionage eouipment.
April 21, 1982: makes sexual attack on
14-year-old Hertfordshire girl.
April 27, 1982: is interviewed by police,
who have traced his car as being that of
suspected child molester. Denies every-
thing. later confesses to his wife.
April 28, 1982: telephones Hereford po-
lice to admit the sexual attack; is arrest-
ed and admits all three attacks on girls.
May. 1982: shopped by his wife. Home
searched: a top-secret document, code
pads, radio and other espionage equip.
ment found.
June 8, 1982: first interview on suspicion
of espionage by West Mercia police:
continues denials at further interviews
on June 11th and June 25th.
June 26. 1982: confesses to espionage.
thereafter co-operates fully with the
authorities,
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/11: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505220011-7