Richard Tomlinson
Tomlinson was imprisoned under the Official Secrets Act 1989 in 1997 after he gave a synopsis of a proposed book detailing his career with MI6 to an Australian publisher.
The book detailed various aspects of MI6 operations, alleging that it employed a mole in the German Bundesbank and that it held a "licence to kill", the latter later confirmed by the head of MI6 at a public hearing.
Tomlinson claimed that MI6 had considered assassinating Slobodan Milošević, the president of Serbia, by staging a car crash using a powerful strobe light to blind the driver, and suggested that Diana and Dodi might have been killed by MI6 in the same way.
[10] The young Tomlinson won a scholarship for the independent Barnard Castle School in County Durham, where he was a contemporary of Rory Underwood and Rob Andrew, who went on to become England rugby internationals.
[11] His fellow student, historian Andrew Roberts, remembers Tomlinson as "a bright and charming undergraduate, popular with the boys for his drinking and sporting prowess, and with the girls for his dark good looks.
[15] Tomlinson completed flying training with Cambridge University Air Squadron and won a Half Blue for Modern Pentathlon.
He graduated from the University of Cambridge with a starred First Class honours degree in aeronautical engineering in 1984, and was approached by MI6 shortly afterwards, whose offer he turned down.
[17] He completed his training with MI6 and claims he was the best recruit on his course, being awarded the rarely given "Box 1" attribute by his instructing officers including Nicholas Langman.
[23] The British government supplied the Iranians with materials for chemical weapons in order to gain intelligence on Iran's military programme.
[23] Tomlinson's description of his Iranian activities are generally considered to be true, due to his personal involvement and knowledge of details that only an insider would know.
[25][26] Tomlinson's probationary period had been extended over the standard six-month duration due to his senior line manager's doubts about his personality.
[27] Tomlinson claimed that he had become suicidally depressed following the death of his long-term girlfriend from cancer and that he had been suffering from post-traumatic stress after witnessing violence against a civilian during the siege of Sarajevo, and that MI6 had been ill-equipped to handle his condition.
[28] MI6 argued that he was dismissed for "not being a team player, lacking motivation and having a short-term interest in the service", but later conceded that he had experienced a "personality clash" with his senior line manager.
Having no further legal recourse to appeal against his dismissal, Tomlinson left the United Kingdom, and pursued his arguments against MI6 by publishing articles in the international press protesting his treatment, whilst working on a book detailing his career in the Service.
[34] Tomlinson accepted the offer (he claims under duress) but retained the job for only a few months before he emigrated to Australia, where his younger brother lived.
[35] Tomlinson returned to Britain, and in October 1997 was arrested and accused of breaking the Official Secrets Act 1989, after delivering a seven-page synopsis of The Big Breach to the Australian office of Transworld, a British publisher.
"[37] Jimmy Burns, reviewing the book for the Financial Times, speculated that it was plausible that "MI6's senior management realised they had made a terrible mistake in recruiting someone who thought that espionage was just one big adventure.
"[39] He concluded, however, that the book "left me with the feeling that the spooks in Whitehall could have avoided a great deal of adverse publicity by agreeing to Tomlinson's original proposal: an employment tribunal held in camera.
"[39] Former President of South Africa Nelson Mandela reacted angrily to Tomlinson's accusation in the book that he had a long-standing relationship with MI6, describing it as a "disgraceful fabrication".
[41] In May 1999, a list of 116 alleged MI6 agents was sent to the LaRouche movement's publication Executive Intelligence Review,[42] a weekly magazine which published it online.
"[48] After The Sun newspaper called Tomlinson a "traitor" and published his email address, he received death threats, and fearing for his life, went into hiding for a time.
[36] Later that month he was deported from the United States, and in October 1998 he moved to Switzerland, before being expelled in June 1999 after the Swiss authorities described his presence there as "undesirable".
