Geoffrey Prime

Geoffrey Arthur Prime (born 21 February 1938) is a former British spy who worked for the Royal Air Force as well as the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ). While working for these organizations, Prime disclosed information to the Soviet Union. He was convicted in the early 1980s under charges of espionage and child sexual abuse. He was sentenced to a total of 38 years' imprisonment but was released from prison in 2001.

Life Prime grew up in Staffordshire. After attending St. Joseph's College, Stoke-on-Trent, and having satisfactorily completed O-levels in languages, he became a junior wages clerk at a factory. In 1956, he was selected for national service in the Royal Air Force (RAF). Due to colour blindness, he became a store man in the RAF. He was later sent to learn Russian at the Joint Services School for Linguists (JSSL) in Crail, Scotland. He was appointed as an acting sergeant after having demonstrated proficiency in the language. However, he resumed duties as a store man after failing an advanced Russian course at the University of London three months after his enrolment in the course, and was subsequently demoted.

Posted to Kenya, Prime was promoted to corporal and learned Swahili in his spare time. Prime was shocked by the poverty in Kenya and the racism of European settlers in the country, and what he perceived was the exploitation of Kenya by the British colonial authorities. While there, he listened to Communist radio broadcasts and started reading the Soviet Weekly magazine. Upon returning to Britain in 1962, he reapplied for language training, spending a year at RAF Tangmere in Tangmere, Sussex, and was posted to the signals intelligence unit at RAF Gatow in Berlin, where he worked as a wireless operator monitoring Russian voice transmissions. He was reappointed as a sergeant in May 1968. His security clearance was subsequently reviewed in 1973, 1974, and 1976, being passed on each occasion. In November 1972, Prime consulted a psychiatrist, who subsequently cast doubt on his mental stability. Prime refrained from reporting his psychiatric appointments, because of concern over his security clearance being revoked. The main gate RAF Gatow in West Berlin. Prime worked at Gatow in the 1960s.

He returned to Britain to work for Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), and became a translator with the London Processing Group (LPG) at St Dunstan's Hill in the City of London. The LPG processed and translated material obtained by telephone intercepts and bugging by the British secret agencies. Prime started at the LPG in late 1968; he was part of a new group of entrants to LPG, recruited to replace older employees who joined during the Second World War.

In the mid-1970s, LPG moved to Cheltenham, the home of GCHQ, with Prime moving there in March 1976. He was part of the J30 section of J Division 'Special SIGINT' at GCHQ, which dealt with Soviet intelligence, and one of three officers with access to a vault in J Division, from which he was able to take documents home to photograph, and photocopy documents at will. In June 1976, he was promoted to Higher Intelligence Specialist in J Division and moved to lead a team of transcribers in J25, another part of the division.

In November 1976, Prime was moved to another section that focused on the intelligence analysis of transcribed material and appointed as Personal Security Supervisor for his section. He had to deliver lectures in his new role and failed to appear for a lecture on 22 September 1977, resigning shortly afterward.

Invited by the KGB on a secret visit to Germany, Prime was given training in spycraft at Karlshorst, under constant supervision. From KGB officers he learnt the use of invisible inks, one-time pads, and microdots. He was given a Minox camera to photograph sensitive documents and a briefcase with a hidden compartment. He was given the code name "Rowlands" and chose Austria as the location of all his future KGB meetings.

A British Security Service assessment of Prime's Soviet espionage career would describe the Third Directorate's handling as "incompetent and inept; had it been run more effectively, the damage done by Prime (which was anyway very considerable) would have been even worse." Prime subsequently met his handlers abroad in Vienna (1969), Ireland (1970), Rome (1970) and Cyprus (1972). At one point in 1977, he went as far as buying a ticket to Helsinki to defect, but turned back en route to the airport.

Nature and impact of espionage In 1975, Prime had access to details of the British decryption efforts of Soviet communications, including their successes and failures.

Prime's most damaging disclosure to the Soviet Union was the revelation of 'Project Sambo', a programme designed to track the secret radio transmissions of Soviet submarines. In conjunction with SOSUS, a joint UKUSA undersea microphone project, and airborne maritime patrol craft fitted with sonar, the West tracked Soviet submarines.

Subsequent investigations Following Prime's arrest and trial, the Security Commission was charged to investigate any breaches of security that may have occurred as a result of his activities and to advise on any changes to security. The commission, consisting of Lord Bridge of Harwich, Lord Justice Griffiths, Lord Allen of Abbeydale and General Sir Hugh Beach, completed its report in May 1983. Part of the report contained classified information and was not published. Presenting the report, Baroness Young said of Prime that "There is no doubt that his disclosures caused exceptionally grave damage to the interests of this country and its allies."

Personal life Prime met his first wife, Helena Organ, through a marriage bureau in August 1969. In 1981, Prime attacked two young girls, on two separate occasions, but escaped undiscovered. Three weeks later, after discovering a large amount of espionage equipment in their house, Rhona contacted the police and told them of Prime's work for the Soviets. In 1982 the Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher denied knowing of Prime's membership of the group in response to a written question from Geoffrey Dickens MP.

Sentencing and release On 10 November 1982 Prime pleaded guilty to seven espionage counts, and three counts of sex offences against children. His sex offences included indecently assaulting three girls aged 11 to 14. He was sentenced by Lord Lane, the Lord Chief Justice, to a total of 38 years, 35 for offences under section 1 of the Official Secrets Act 1911 and three for his sex offences. At his trial Prime concluded that the cause of his spying was partly "...as a result of a misplaced idealistic view of Soviet socialism which was compounded by basic psychological problems within myself." Prime would have been freed automatically in 2007 after two-thirds of his sentence had been served, but at that time prisoners were often released on licence having served half their sentence, if for example, they showed remorse for having committed the offences wherewith they had been convicted. but distanced herself from him during his imprisonment, and subsequently remarried.