Daniel Abed Khalife was brought up with his twin sister in Kingston, south-west London, by his mother, who came from Iran.
He had limited contact with his Lebanese father, whom he said was “not a good man” and would “pop in and out, do some damage and then leave”.
Speaking in clipped tones in the witness box, his accent was seemingly at odds with his tale of growing up in a humble home in a wealthy area, too ashamed to invite friends round to his house.
The 23-year-old told the jury that friendships he formed at Teddington School were “in essence, fake” and that his mother was “very, very strict”, suggesting that her upbringing in Iran had left her paranoid.
I think he probably enjoyed the thrill of deception throughout
After a teenage dalliance with shoplifting – Khalife realised during a science lesson in school that powerful magnets could be used to remove security tags – his mother decided to take him to Iran for the first time.
Travelling there for a month at the age of 15, he claimed he hated the country and that the trip to the capital, Tehran, made him appreciate all he had in the UK.
Smartly dressed in a white shirt with the sleeves rolled up and light-coloured trousers, he told the jury he was not academic and did not like school – but that he had ultimately passed 10 GCSEs.
As a child he was fascinated by planes, but did not pursue an early dream of becoming a pilot because he was afraid of heights, he joked.
Instead he was inspired by the sight of the Household Cavalry Barracks in Hyde Park, which he thought was “amazing”.
In September 2018, two weeks before his 17th birthday, he joined the British Army, completing his basic 23-week military training at the Army Foundation College, at Harrogate, Yorkshire, finishing in February 2019.
Joining up gave him his first chance to experience freedom and get away from home, he said, calling himself an English patriot who was proud to serve his country.
The 6ft 2in recruit decided to join the Royal Corps of Signals, a specialist unit which provides communications, IT and cyber support to the army.
In March 2019, Khalife – holding the lowest rank of signaller – moved on to his specialist Phase 2 training at the Defence School of Communication and Information Systems at Blandford Forum in Dorset.
He underwent and passed security clearance, giving him access to secret, or even above, sensitive information.
Around this time, he claimed during his trial, a troop commander warned him that his Iranian heritage could stop him being able to work in military intelligence.
So, at the age of just 17, Khalife said he decided to prove his bosses wrong and made his first contact with Iran in the hope of eventually working as a double agent.
The soldier completed his year-long specialist training in early 2020, and was posted to the 16th Signal Regiment in Stafford.
He was sent to the US for a short stint in 2021, posted to Fort Cavazos (then called Fort Hood) in Texas from February to April that year.
All the while he remained in contact with his Iranian handlers.
Khalife claimed that he wanted to flush out Iranian spies working in the UK, but did not manage to gather any evidence against them.
“I was thinking I could be James Bond or something, like an idiot,” he told his trial.
Khalife created and passed on fake documents purporting to be from MPs, senior military officials and the security services, but also sent genuine army doctrine notes.
Jurors also heard how he covertly gathered the forenames of service personnel, including those in special forces, by logging on to an internal HR system for booking leave.
Messages showed he told his Iranian handlers he would stay in the military for 25-plus years, stealing information to order, while he also contacted MI5 and MI6 to tout his services.
Ultimately the offer was not taken up – MI5 reported him to police and he was arrested in January 2022.
A year later, he realised he was facing serious criminal charges and fled his barracks.
He spent the next three weeks “trying not to freeze to death” while living in a van in a nearby town using number plates from another vehicle, both of which he had stolen from the barracks.
Later, Khalife’s cunning came to the fore again, with his audacious escape from HMP Wandsworth strapped to the underside of a food delivery truck in September 2023.
He made one final attempt to contact the Iranians while on the run, sending a Telegram message which said simply: “I wait.”
He managed three days on the run before he was caught on a canal towpath by a plain clothes detective, whom he congratulated for catching him.
Concern he would try a similar stunt during his trial was so high that during his evidence, he was brought to and from the witness box in handcuffs.
After his conviction, he was described by police as the “ultimate Walter Mitty character that was having a significant impact on the real world”.
“Ego is a factor, I’ve got no doubt he’s got an uncanny ability to manipulate others,” Dominic Murphy, head of the Metropolitan Police’s Counter Terrorism Command said.
“I think he probably enjoyed the thrill of deception throughout.”
