John Alexander Symonds

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John Symonds, codename SKOT, 1973

John Alexander Symonds (born July 13, 1935) is a British former Metropolitan police officer and KGB agent. He was born in the Soke of Peterborough, and was Commissioned in the Royal Artillery from 1953-56. He joined the Metropolitan Police in 1956, becoming a Detective Sergeant at New Scotland Yard, until 1972 when he fled the UK while facing charges of corruption.^[1]

Between 1972-80 he was a KGB agent employed as a "Romeo spy" with the codename SKOT. The role he was allocated by his Soviet masters was the seduction of women working in Western embassies with the aim of obtaining secrets.^[2]

In the 1980s Symonds had revealed himself as a spy to the police and security services, and appeared on the front page of the Daily Express (1985) and in the News on Sunday (1987) but was dismissed as "a fantasist".^[1] It was only with the defection of Major Vasili Mitrokhin in 1992, and the subsequent publication of the Mitrokhin Archive in 1999, where Symonds was named as a spy for the Soviet Union, that his claim gained credence.

Symonds was never prosecuted for any offence related to espionage or spying, and was never interviewed by MI5 or the Secret Intelligence Service. It was confirmed that Symonds was not being prosecuted for any charge because he had been offered immunity by the Director of Public Prosecutions office in 1984 in connection with a criminal inquiry.^[3]^[4] This was granted in relation to police corruption inquiries,^[5] stated by Symonds to be Operation Countryman.

The publication of Mitrokhin's material launched a parliamentary inquiry by the Intelligence and Security Committee. Its report when published referred to the lack of interest shown by the security services to Symonds case:-

The Committee believes that it was a serious failure of the Security Service not to refer Mr Symonds' case to the Law Officers in mid 1993. We are concerned that it took over 9 months to consult the Law Officers after he was identified in the draft book. We believe that the Service could have interviewed Mr Symonds, at least for the intelligence and historical record.^[5]

Police Corruption

In 1969 after having been a police officer for 15 years John Alexander Symonds was one of three officers charged with corruption following a newspaper investigation into bribery at Scotland Yard. He skipped bail and fled to Morocco. Symonds claimed later that he had been 'fitted up' and forced to leave under pain of death after having threatened to expose during any trial "the endemic and systemic corruption within the Metropolitan Police service" at the time.^[1]

Mercenary

In Morocco Symonds served as a mercenary, making use of his police experience and Army expertise to train African troops to use the 25-pounder howitzer, an artillery piece that was, by that time, obsolete by British Army standards and had been sold off as surplus to several African countries.^[1] It was at this point that Symonds had effectively been recruited by the KGB.^[6]

'Romeo Spy' the movie

Prodigy Pictures were for some time in the pre-production stage of making a movie based on the autobiography of John Symonds.^[7] A script had been completed and Daniel Craig and Jude Law were being considered to play the lead role.^[8] However, as at September 2013 the movie appears to be no longer under development. ^[9]

References

↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 "I told you I was a spy". The Guardian (London). 1999-09-14. Retrieved 2008-01-13.
↑ "The 'Romeo' spy". BBC News. 1999-09-13. Retrieved 2008-01-12.
↑ Buncombe, Andrew (1999-12-21). "The spy who came in from the past escapes prosecution". The Independent (London). Retrieved 2008-01-12.
↑ "Written Answers to Questions - SOLICITOR-GENERAL - Mitrokhin Archive". Retrieved 2008-01-12.
↑ 5.0 5.1 "Intelligence and Security Committee - The Mitrokhin Inquiry Report". Retrieved 2008-01-12.
↑ BBC: "The Spying Game", first broadcast on BBC2, 19 September 1999.
↑ "'Romeo Spy' movie to be produced at Prodigy Pictures Inc". Retrieved 2009-11-04.
↑ "To the big screen with love, the story of the British ‘Romeo Spy’". Daily Mail (London). 2009-09-19. Retrieved 2009-11-04.
↑ http://www.prodigypictures.com/in_development

External links

Romeo Spy Blog the blog of John Alexander Symonds
BBC Special Report at the time of the release of the Mitrokhin Archive, 13 September 1999
City man was spy for KGB a local newspaper report published in the Rutland & Stamford Mercury on 13 September 1999
Intelligence and Security Committee - The Mitrokhin Enquiry Report
Reply from the Solicitor General on the Mitrokhin Archive, 20 December 1999
John Symonds and others escape prosecution, 21 December 1999
Judge's Summing Up complete text by Judge at the end of Symonds' trial
Nigel West Keynote Speech Nigel West talks about John Symonds at the Raleigh Spy Conference

Soviet and Russian spies

In the US

1940s and before	John Abt Joel Barr Elizabeth Bentley Boris Bykov Whittaker Chambers Lona Cohen Morris Cohen Judith Coplon Noel Field Klaus Fuchs Harold Glasser Harry Gold Mihail Gorin David Greenglass Theodore Hall John Herrmann Alger Hiss Donald Hiss George Koval William Malisoff Hede Massing Boris Morros Isaiah Oggins William Perl Victor Perlo J. Peters Ward Pigman Lee Pressman Vincent Reno Julius Rosenberg Alfred Sarant Saville Sax Morton Sobell Alexander Ulanovsky Julian Wadleigh Harold Ware Bill Weisband Nathaniel Weyl Harry Dexter White Nathan Witt Flora Wovschin Anatoli Yatskov

1950s and 1960s	Jack Dunlap Vilyam Genrikhovich Fisher Reino Häyhänen Robert Lee Johnson Jack Soble Myra Soble Robert Soblen

1970s and after	Karl Koecher Aldrich Ames David Sheldon Boone Christopher John Boyce Thomas Patrick Cavanaugh James Hall III Robert Hanssen Edward Lee Howard Andrew Daulton Lee Clayton J. Lonetree Richard Miller Harold James Nicholson Ronald Pelton Earl Edwin Pitts Illegals Program Robert Thompson George Trofimoff John Anthony Walker Maria Wicher Anna Chapman

In the UK

Cambridge Five	Anthony Blunt Guy Burgess John Cairncross Donald Maclean Kim Philby

Portland Spy Ring	Lona Cohen Morris Cohen Ethel Gee Harry Houghton Konon Molody

Michael Bettaney George Blake David Crook Litzi Friedmann Klaus Fuchs Melita Norwood Alan Nunn May John Peet Geoffrey Prime Goronwy Rees Michael John Smith Dave Springhall John Alexander Symonds Edith Tudor Hart John Vassall Arthur Wynn

In Canada

Elsewhere

Persondata
Name	Symonds, John Alexander
Alternative names
Short description	British spy for the Soviet Union
Date of birth	1935-07-13
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death

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