Shayler faces jail over secrets breach

The renegade former MI5 agent David Shayler is facing a prison sentence of up to six years after being convicted of breaching the Official Secrets Act. Shayler, 36, was found guilty at the Old Bailey of disclosing information, documents and information from telephone taps to a Sunday newspaper for £40,000.

The prosecution, which argued that he had placed the lives of 50 secret agents at risk, said it would apply for the money to be confiscated.

The verdict follows a six-year saga during which Shayler has resigned from the Security Service, sold his story, lived in exile in France and returned to Britain to try and clear his name.

His supporters said his claims that he acted in the public interest in disclosing documents that revealed bungling by agents and MI5's lack of accountability should have been a legitimate defence.

Shayler's solicitor, John Wadham, director of the civil rights group Liberty, said: "The Official Secrets Act needs to be amended so that there is a public interest defence. Then juries could be told the whole truth and whistleblowers who expose malpractice would then be acquitted." Mr Wadham added that Shayler, who will be sentenced today, would consider going to the Court of Appeal about the regime, imposed during the trial by Mr Justice Moses, that forced him to reveal his case to the prosecution in advance. The case will also be taken before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

The court was told that before leaving MI5 in October 1996, Shayler copied 28 sensitive files, including documents marked "top secret" on Libyan links with the IRA and Soviet funding of the Communist Party of Great Britain.

Nigel Sweeney QC, for the prosecution, told the trial that as a result of leaks of such information "the nation's agents may be unmasked". As a further possible consequence, he said, "terrorists or other criminals or foreign agents will be alerted and take evasive action".

Shayler, who defended himself during the trial, told the court he was "seeking to expose the truth". He said: "It should be a fundamental principle of a fair society that people are allowed to expose the wrongdoing of the security services, particularly when they are a threat to our liberty."