Daniel Khalife, a former soldier, has been sentenced to more than 14 years in custody and condemned as a “dangerous fool” for spying for Iran and escaping from prison.
In September 2023, Khalife, 23, sparked a high-profile manhunt when he broke out of HMP Wandsworth by clinging to the underside of a food delivery truck. At the time he was being held on remand for spying charges.
Last November, a jury at Woolwich crown court found him guilty of breaching the Official Secrets Act and the Terrorism Act by passing on information to Iran while he was serving in the army. During his trial he also admitted escaping from prison before his capture on a canal towpath by a plainclothes detective. He was cleared of carrying out a bomb hoax.
On Monday, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb sentenced him to 14 years and three months at Woolwich crown court.
The sentence involved six years each for breaking the Official Secrets Act and the Terrorism Act, and a further two years and three months for escaping from prison. The sentences will run consecutively, the judge said. An older man committing these offences would have had a noticeably longer sentence, she added.
In her sentencing remarks, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said: “Deterring others from similar behaviour must be the primary aim of this sentence.” The judge said Khalife was motivated by a “selfish desire to show off”.
The trial heard how Khalife had “exposed military personnel to serious harm” by collecting sensitive information and passing it on to Iranian agents for cash.
The judge said Khalife had exploited a security flaw in the army personnel computer system to screenshot the names of soldiers, including seven in the special forces. She said this was a “very serious example” of a breach of anti-terror laws.
Prosecutors said Khalife played “a cynical game”, claiming he wanted a career as a double agent to help the British intelligence services, when in fact he gathered “a very large body of restricted and classified material”.
Mr Justice Cheema-Grubb said:“Having taken an oath of allegiance, you were motivated by a personal grievance to betray your colleagues and superiors. Your conduct was premeditated and continued for over two years.
“You were aware that the Iranians had technology which could access your mobile phone and track where you, and by direct inference, your colleagues were serving. Although it may be that some of your early material was bogus and of no direct importance, you did not stop when you realised that the domestic security services were not going to respond to your overtures.”
She added: “The mere fact that you started on this dangerous and fantastical plan demonstrates your immaturity and lack of wisdom. That you thought it was appropriate to insert yourself – an unauthorised, unqualified and uninformed junior soldier into communication with an enemy state – is perhaps the clearest indication of the degree of folly and your failure to understand at the most obvious level the risk you posed.”
Defending, Gul Nawaz Hussain KC said Khalife’s spying activity was amateurish, describing it as more “Scooby Doo than 007”. Some documents Khalife forged to pass to the Iranians were “laughably fake”, Hussain told the court.
He told the judge: “What Daniel Khalife clearly chose to do was not born of malice, was not born of greed, religious fervour or ideological conviction. His intentions were neither sinister nor cynical.”
After asking the defendant to stand up in the dock, the judge said: “Daniel Khalife. When you joined the army as a young man you had the makings of an exemplary soldier. However, through the repeated violation of your oath of service, you showed yourself to be, instead, a dangerous fool.
“The only sentence open to me is one of immediate custody. Anyone who is prepared to betray his country and subject serving soldiers to an increased risk of harm must be punished in respect of deterrence.”
