Geoffrey Prime

Geoffrey Arthur Prime (born 21 February 1938) is a former British spy who worked for the Royal Air Force as well as the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ).

After attending St. Joseph's College, Stoke-on-Trent, and having satisfactorily completed O-levels in languages, he became a junior wages clerk at a factory.

However, he resumed duties as a store man after failing an advanced Russian course at the University of London three months after his enrollment in the course, and was subsequently demoted.

The LPG processed and translated material obtained by telephone intercepts and bugging by the British secret agencies.

[6] As a train carrying Prime moved into West Berlin in 1968 he threw a message at a Soviet sentry guard, offering his services as a spy.

[2] Prime met the KGB, the security agency of the Soviet Union, several times to prove his sincerity, and though he insisted he wished to work for them for ideological motives, they gave him money.

Knowing that his RAF enlistment was to expire, the KGB successfully persuaded him to apply for a job at GCHQ in Cheltenham, and he returned to Britain.

[7] Invited by the KGB on a secret visit to Germany, Prime was given training in spycraft at Karlshorst, under constant supervision.

Agents would typically be assigned a local handler to accompany them, but his method of contacting a Soviet soldier ensured that he was handled by the Third Directorate of the KGB.

[8] As he began his employment with GCHQ in England, Prime received Soviet radio messages at night and was informed of a dead letter drop in Esher, Surrey.

[11] In 1975, Prime had access to details of the British decryption efforts of Soviet communications, including their successes and failures.

[11] In view of the sheer amount of data obtained, the United States National Security Agency asked its UKUSA allies to help them interpret it.

As well as Prime's espionage activities, two American spies who had been recruited by the KGB, John Anthony Walker and Christopher Boyce, also severely affected the SIGINT efforts of Western intelligence agencies.

In conjunction with SOSUS, a joint UKUSA undersea microphone project, and airborne maritime patrol craft fitted with sonar, the West tracked Soviet submarines.

Presenting the report, Baroness Young said of Prime that "There is no doubt that his disclosures caused exceptionally grave damage to the interests of this country and its allies.

[3] The report concluded that no evidence was found to "contradict Prime's statement that he acted alone", that he had an accomplice or that the Soviet Union had another mole within GCHQ.

The revelations within the lists would lead to five GCHQ employees being demoted and losing their security clearances; none, however, were under pressure from the Soviet Union.

MI5 believed that in 1977 Prime had been replaced as a Soviet mole in GCHQ by another spy of perhaps even greater importance and access.

[13] That evening Prime told his wife, Rhona, of the police visit and confessed the nature of his sexual crimes, and his espionage activities to her.

[17] Three weeks later, after discovering a large amount of espionage equipment in their house, Rhona contacted the police and told them of Prime's work for the Soviets.

[23] At his trial Prime concluded that the cause of his spying was partly "...as a result of a misplaced idealistic view of Soviet socialism which was compounded by basic psychological problems within myself.

In rejecting his appeal Lord Justice Lawton told Prime that "In a time of war such conduct would have merited the death penalty.

"[20] Prime was released from HM Prison Rochester in March 2001, after serving half of his sentence, and placed on the Sex Offender Register.

Cole, in charge of the police investigation, wrote a book about the case after his retirement - Geoffrey Prime: The Imperfect Spy.