MIS man charged

Press, 12 April 1984, Page 11

MIS man charged

NZPA-Reuter London An officer of Britain’s counter-espionage service, MIS, went on trial yesterday accused of passing secrets to the Soviet Union and repeatedly offering to work as a K.G.B. “mole” inside British Intelligence. Michael John Bettaney, aged 33, denied 10 charges of betraying sensitive information to a Soviet official and seeking to arrange more contacts with the Soviets. Before the trial was closed to the public the prosecution said that “grave damage to Britain” had been averted by Bettaney’s

arrest. The Attorney-General, Sir Michael Havers, said that the defendant had decided to work for the Soviet Union for ideological reasons in 1982 and had approached a Soviet official three times to offer his services. Each time there had been no response. Twice he had passed on secret information to prove his credentials but finally he despaired of making a Soviet contact in London and had resolved to try his luck with Soviet officials in Vienna. Bettaney, a middleranking MIS officer, was arrested in September. The two documents he

had passed on were a topsecret MIS assessment of Soviet espionage activities in Britain, and background details on the expulsion of three Soviet diplomats from Britain in March 1983, Sir Michael said. During last year the defendant had stored secret material at his home, intending to pass it on to Moscow. Bettaney joined the British Secret Service in 1975 and served in Northern Ireland before joining the staff at MIS headquarters in London two years ago. He is the first MIS officer to stand trial for spying against Britain.