16 January 2006

My first post

I started this blog to try to resolve a number of issues that I have lived with for over 13 years now. It started with my arrest on 8 August 1992 for allegedly selling military secrets to the Russians. I was later convicted of 3 out of 4 charges under the United Kingdom's Official Secrets Act, but it was far from clear what I had actually done to deserve the 25 year sentence I received at my trial, even though this was later reduced to 20 years on appeal.

My arrest was as a result of an MI5 project called Operation Billiards. According to accounts, given at the time, this operation was linked to the activities and defection of a Russian intelligence officer called Viktor Oshchenko (also spelt Oschenko in some media documents). But was Oshchenko really the man behind my arrest, or was that something Vasili Mitrokhin was responsible for? The full story has never been revealed.