Michael John Smith was born on 22 September 1948. He was charged in the UK with four offences under sections 1(1)(b) and (c) the Official Secrets Act 1911 in 1992 and convicted on the three of charges under section 1(1)(c). He was sentenced to 25 years in prison. This was later reduced to 20 years on appeal in June 1995. The three charges on which he was convicted related to 'communicating material to another for a purpose prejudicial to the safety or interests of the State'.
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Between 1960 and 1967 Smith attended Ockendon Courts County Secondary Modern School, Essex and achieved nine GCE 'O' level and four 'A' levels. He went on to the University of Surrey where he graduated in 1971 with a degree in Electronic and Electrical Engineering.
Smith joined the Communist Party of Great Britain in 1972. In 1975 he became the secretary of the Kingston branch of the Young Communist League.
Upon graduating Smith found employment for a short time as a trainee assistant electronic engineer at a small engineering company.
April 1972 he joined Rediffusion in Chessington as a Junior Engineer.
July 1976, Smith started work as a test engineer in the Quality Assurance department of Thorn EMI Defence Electronics at Feltham, Middlesex. As a part of his role Smith had security clearance to allow him access to material classified up to SECRET.
From 1985 to 31 July 1992 (when he was made redundant) he was employed as a Quality Audit Manager at the GEC Hirst Research Center, Wembley. The Hirst Research Centre was the central research laboratory of General Electric Company plc, which undertook a wide range of Ministry of Defence (MoD) and commercial projects.
Hirst was classed since at least 1977 as a ‘prohibited place’ within Section 3(b) of the Official Secrets Act 1911 because it received and held classified material for the purpose of fulfilling MoD contracts. These contracts cover a range of military equipment including the Rapier missile.
It was alleged Smith was recruited as a spy by Viktor Oshchenko, who befriended him at a union meeting in 1975 and ran Smith up until September 1979.
Viktor Oshchenko defected from the USSR in July 1992 and provided information which is said confirmed suspicions that Smith had provided information on the XN-715 radar fuse for the British WE.177 free fall nuclear bomb. The fuse was developed by Thorn EMI in conjunction with a number of MoD research establishments.
Despite the fact that the most serious of Smith's alleged espionage activities occurred whilst he was working for EMI, his trial was confined to charges under the Official Secrets Act 1911 relating to the documents taken from GEC in his possession at the time of his arrest.
Following the defection of Viktor Oshchenko and the information he provided it was decided that Smith should be arrested as soon as possible. In August 1992 a member of the Security Service telephoned Smith and pretended to be a friend of his friend Viktor and that they should meet. It was arranged to call Smith at a telephone kiosk near his home. This call never took place due to a mix up but Smith was under surveillance by the Metropolitan Police near the telephone box. When Smith returned home he was arrested under the Official Secrets Act 1911.
Analysis of Smith's financial affairs revealed unexplained income of over £20,000.
During a search of the boot of Smith's car, police found a plastic bag full of documents and some components. Amongst the documents were handwritten notes headed "Micromachining Project", "Micron-Valve Project" and other subjects. A document was also found which an expert at his trial linked to the ALARM missile project.
The report of the Security Commission dated July 1995 prepared after an inquiry into this case stated that:
On the 10th January 2006 Andrew Mackinlay MP asked in Parliament for clarification on to which weapon system the most serious document in the prosecution against Smith was linked. Smith alleges that this document had nothing to do with the ALARM missile system as was alleged in his trial.