Michael Bettaney

Michael John Bettaney (13 February 1950 – 16 August 2018), also known as Michael Malkin, was a British intelligence officer who worked in the counter-espionage branch of the Security Service often known as MI5.

He was convicted at the Old Bailey in 1984 of offences under section 1 of the Official Secrets Act 1911 after passing sensitive documents to the Soviet Embassy in London and attempting to act as an agent-in-place for the Soviet Union. His trial was conducted in camera but some of the press reporting is available.

Early life Born into modest circumstances in Fenton, Stoke on Trent, Bettaney later attended Pembroke College, Oxford, where he studied English in 1969–72, and was allegedly known for his admiration for Adolf Hitler and for singing the Horst-Wessel-Lied in local public houses.

Career

Bettaney was posted to Belfast in June 1976 and was injured in a car bomb attack.

In 1978 Bettaney returned to London and participated in the newly created anti-terrorist branch. He took a large number of secret documents home with him from the office, before trying to hand over highlights to the KGB's London rezident (Head of KGB Station or rezidentura), General Arkady V. Guk, by dropping the documentation through the letterbox of Guk's house, Bettaney knowing the address via his work. Bettaney did not know that another member of the Station, KGB [Acting] Colonel Oleg Gordievsky, was an MI6 agent. Gordievsky informed MI6 and the British authorities managed to identify and arrest Bettaney

Although Bettaney subsequently claimed to have been inspired by political motives, an alternative theory of his motivation is alleged to arise from the following: he had received a final warning following a criminal conviction for fare-dodging and an arrest for being drunk in the street. While in prison he had learned the Russian language via broadcasts from Radio Moscow.