John Alexander Symonds (born 13 July 1935) is an English former

Metropolitan Police The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), formerly and still commonly known as the Metropolitan Police (and informally as the Met Police, the Met, Scotland Yard, or the Yard), is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement and ...

officer and

KGB The KGB (russian: links=no, lit=Committee for State Security, Комитет государственной безопасности (КГБ), a=ru-KGB.ogg, p=kəmʲɪˈtʲet ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)əj bʲɪzɐˈpasnəsʲtʲɪ, Komitet gosud ...

agent Agent may refer to: Espionage, investigation, and law *, spies or intelligence officers * Law of agency, laws involving a person authorized to act on behalf of another ** Agent of record, a person with a contractual agreement with an insuranc ...

Biography

Symonds was born in the

Soke of Peterborough The Soke of Peterborough is a historic area of England associated with the City and Diocese of Peterborough, but considered part of Northamptonshire. The Soke was also described as the Liberty of Peterborough, or Nassaburgh hundred, and compr ...

. He was commissioned in the

Royal Artillery The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery (RA) and colloquially known as "The Gunners", is one of two regiments that make up the artillery arm of the British Army. The Royal Regiment of Artillery comprises t ...

, serving from 1953 to 1956. He joined the

in 1956, becoming a detective sergeant at

New Scotland Yard Scotland Yard (officially New Scotland Yard) is the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police, the territorial police force responsible for policing Greater London's 32 boroughs, but not the City of London, the square mile that forms London's ...

. In 1969, after having been a police officer for 15 years, Symonds was one of three officers charged with

corruption Corruption is a form of dishonesty or a criminal offense which is undertaken by a person or an organization which is entrusted in a position of authority, in order to acquire illicit benefits or abuse power for one's personal gain. Corruption m ...

following a newspaper investigation into bribery at Scotland Yard. He skipped bail and fled to

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to ...

in 1972. 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 Corruption is a form of dishonesty or a criminal offense which is undertaken by a person or an organization which is entrusted in a position of authority, in order to acquire illicit benefits or abuse power for one's personal gain. Corruption m ...

within the Metropolitan Police service" at the time. In Morocco, Symonds served as a mercenary, making use of his police and military 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. It was at this point that Symonds was recruited by the KGB.BBC: "The Spying Game", first broadcast on BBC2, 19 September 1999. Between 1972 and 1980, he was a KGB agent employed as a "Romeo spy" with the codename SKOT. He was directed by his Soviet masters to seduce women working in Western embassies with the aim of obtaining secrets. In 1981, he returned to England. Symonds revealed himself as a spy to the police and security services in the 1980s, and appeared on the front page of the ''

Daily Express The ''Daily Express'' is a national daily United Kingdom middle-market newspaper printed in tabloid format. Published in London, it is the flagship of Express Newspapers, owned by publisher Reach plc. It was first published as a broadsheet i ...

'' (1985) and in the ''

News on Sunday The ''News on Sunday'' was a left-wing British tabloid newspaper. It was launched in April 1987. Publication ceased seven months later, in November 1987. Origins The founders of the paper were former members of the left-wing group Big Flame. T ...

'' (1987), but was dismissed as "a fantasist". It was only with the defection of Major

Vasili Mitrokhin Vasili Nikitich Mitrokhin (russian: link=no, Васи́лий Ники́тич Митро́хин; March 3, 1922 – January 23, 2004) was a major and senior archivist for the Soviet Union's foreign intelligence service, the First Chief Dir ...

in 1992 and the subsequent publication of the

Mitrokhin Archive The "Mitrokhin Archive" is a collection of handwritten notes which were secretly made by the KGB archivist Vasili Mitrokhin during the thirty years in which he served as a KGB archivist in the foreign intelligence service and the First Chief Direc ...

in 1999, in which Symonds was named as a spy for the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

, that his claim gained credence. Symonds was never prosecuted for any offence related to espionage or spying, and was never interviewed by

MI5 The Security Service, also known as MI5 ( Military Intelligence, Section 5), is the United Kingdom's domestic counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), Go ...

or the

Secret Intelligence Service The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), commonly known as MI6 ( Military Intelligence, Section 6), is the foreign intelligence service of the United Kingdom, tasked mainly with the covert overseas collection and analysis of human intelligenc ...

. It was confirmed that Symonds was not being prosecuted because he had been offered immunity by the

Director of Public Prosecutions The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) is the office or official charged with the prosecution of criminal offences in several criminal jurisdictions around the world. The title is used mainly in jurisdictions that are or have been members o ...

office in 1984 in connection with a criminal inquiry. This was granted in relation to police corruption inquiries, stated by Symonds to be

Operation Countryman Operation Countryman was an investigation into police corruption in London in the late 1970s. The operation was conducted between 1978–1982 at a total cost of £3 million and led to eight police officers being prosecuted, although none were convi ...

. The publication of Mitrokhin's material launched a parliamentary inquiry by the

Intelligence and Security Committee The Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament (ISC) is a statutory joint committee of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, appointed to oversee the work of the UK intelligence community. The committee was established in 1994 by the ...

. Its report when published referred to the lack of interest shown by the security services in 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.

''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. However, as of September 2013 the movie appeared to be no longer under development.

References

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

- The Mitrokhin Enquiry Report

on the Mitrokhin Archive, 20 December 1999
John Symonds
and others escape prosecution, 21 December 1999

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
Romeo Spy Book
by John Symonds with an introduction by Nigel West. {{DEFAULTSORT:Symonds, John Alexander Admitted Soviet spies British spies for the Soviet Union 1935 births Living people Royal Artillery officers Metropolitan Police officers