British soldier Daniel Khalife carried out ‘hapless and slapstick’ spying mission that resembled a Scooby Doo sketch, his own lawyer tells court

British soldier Daniel Khalife carried out a ‘hapless’ one-man spying mission that more resembled Scooby Doo than James Bond, his lawyer said today.

The 23-year-old has admitted escaping from prison last year, but continues to deny charges that he spent two years spying for Iran while serving in the British Army.

He instead insists that he was an amateur ‘double agent’ trying to prove his spycraft to MI5 and MI6, after being told his Iranian heritage would stop him getting his dream job in intelligence.

His ‘mission’ saw him collecting cash from Iranian agents in a dog poo bag, after passing them fake secret documents, riddled with typos, he had written on his laptop.

In his closing speech to the jury at Woolwich Crown Court, defence barrister Gul Nawaz Hussain KC said the real reason Khalife may be in the dock was because he had embarrassed so many people – including the Army and the intelligence services.

But he said Khalife had also embarrassed himself with his attempts to mount an amateur double agent operation against Iran, first undertaken while still a teenager.

‘He thought he had a good idea, an idea that would fix everything and all that has achieved is bringing him into the dock of the crown court, a cell in a high-security prison, the hatred of some, the ridicules of many others and the loss of a career that meant the whole world to him,’ Mr Hussain said.

A court artist drawing by Elizabeth Cook of Daniel Khalife appearing at Woolwich Crown Court

HMP Wandsworth in London, where Daniel Khalife has pleaded guilty to escaping custody at the prison

‘His plan wasn’t Homeland, it wasn’t 007. I racked my brains to think of the best example I could think of and it’s Scooby Doo. Hapless, running around, clumsy at times, making mistakes, sometimes borders on slapstick.

‘But alongside all that was happening, all the moments that might have made you cringe, there were moments you might think that showed real ingenuity. He showed he was someone who could persevere, he showed he was someone who was willing to serve.’

Mr Hussain told the court that the only reason the police and prosecution had any evidence at all was because Khalife had phoned MI5 in November 2021 to tell them what he was doing.

‘It is an undeniable truth and a fact that we say you must put at the very heart of your deliberations – if Daniel Khalife had not contacted MI5 or MI6 no one would ever know what he was doing,’ he said.

‘Why would he report himself if he was a real spy?’

On Tuesday, prosecutor Mark Heywood KC told the jury in his closing speech that Khalife ‘drove a coach and horses through the rules and he did so knowingly and for an entirely selfish purpose’.

The prosecution allege that, in addition to fake documents, Khalife passed classified military documents to the Iranians as well as a list of soldiers from elite units such as the SAS.

Khalife is seen on CCTV preparing to slip out of custody while working in the kitchens at HMP Wandsworth – triggering a huge nationwide manhunt

Daniel Khalife while on the run at a branch of Mountain Warehouse in Richmond, London, which was shown to a jury at the Old Bailey, London, during his trial

Mr Heywood said: ‘The safety and security of the UK is dealt with by hundreds if not thousands of properly employed people who know what they are doing and have been formally recruited, vetted and so on.

‘It is not dealt with by somebody who in a private capacity for their own purposes knowingly puts that security at risk for their own reasons, their incompetence and lack of guidance and advice, and is playing in this space, totally untutored and self-evidently dangerous.

‘It imperils not only himself but the safety and security of other individuals whether British subjects, part British subjects or others.

‘On any proper analysis, Mr Khalife’s true purpose included self-advancement and self-advancement is not something on which the currency of the safety and security of this country should be spent at all.’

The jury will retire to begin its deliberations after hearing a summing up of the evidence from Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb.

The trial continues.