[4][5] One book written about espionage in the Middle-East describes Cyprus as "bristling with radar and electronic intelligence hardware that made it a major military prize for the superpowers".
In 1978, the ABC trial was heard at the Old Bailey; this case revolved around a former corporal, John Berry, who had divulged information about the SIGINT activities on the island to investigative journalists, Crispin Aubrey and Duncan Campbell.
[13] In August 1984, a year before the case went to trial, Aircraftsman Paul Davies, who was also serving in Cyprus, was acquitted on charges related to exchanging secrets for sexual favours from a local woman that the press had dubbed Mata Hari.
[5][15] The other eight accused from the following year, were all charged ...[that] on a day between 1 November 1983 and 7 February 1984, within the jurisdiction of the Central Criminal Court, for a purpose prejudicial to the safety or interests of the State, communicated to another person information which was calculated to be or might have been or was intended to be directly or indirectly useful to an enemy; Contrary to section 1(1)(c) of the Official Secrets Act 1911.
[19] The counsel for the prosecution offered no evidence in his case and the judge instructed the jury to acquit him of the charges laid against him, which left the two army signallers, Martin Tuffy and Anthony Glass, along with the five airmen (Geoffrey Jones, Adam Lightowler, Christopher Payne, Wayne Kriehn and Gwynfor Owen) to face trial.
In February 1982, Jones met a Saudi Arabian man named "John" in a nightclub and after a night of drinking, they went back to his flat in Larnaca on the coast.
[24] In a similar vein to the Aircraftsman Davis court case a year earlier, the defence called those who they said were the handlers and spies on the receiving side of the information.
Josie Igniliano, the Filipino cabaret singer who Jones was supposedly infatuated with and others whom the prosecution alleged were involved in the spy ring testified for the defence in September 1985.
[28] Due to the collapse of the trial and the allegations of mistreatment, the case was raised in the House of Commons, with the Conservative MP Anthony Beaumont-Dark demanding that the MoD pay compensation.
The Labour Party's shadow defence minister, Peter Almond, writing in The Washington Times, described the failed court case and the spy allegations as a serious embarrassment for the British Government.
[note 3] Denzil Davies, accused the military police of "Gestapo-style methods", while Gerald Kaufman, the Labour Party's Home Affairs spokesman, demanded an explanation to the "pointless and humiliating charade".
[27][15] In the editorial of The times for 29 October 1985, the leading article is in agreement stating; To lose one Cyprus spy prosecution, of Signalman Davies last year, was to slip.
[30][31] The publication of the report led to the Minister of State for the Armed Forces, John Stanley, announcing in Parliament that the seven men were entitled to ex gratia payments for being detained unlawfully.