Defiant Shayler to fight charges

Court appearance comes three years after his claims were published

The former MI5 officer, David Shayler, appeared in court for the first time on Thursday, charged with two offences under the Official Secrets Act.

He attended Bow Street Magistrates Court in London three years to the day after the Mail on Sunday first published criticisms of MI5, which it said came from him.

His solicitor John Wadham, director of civil rights group Liberty, said his client would plead not guilty to both charges.

Mr Shayler, 34, made a high-profile return from self-imposed exile in France on Monday.

Special Branch officers arrested him at Dover before he had even cleared passport control.

He was charged with breaking the Official Secrets Act after allegedly giving classified information and documents to the newspaper which then accused MI5 of bureaucracy, incompetence and a lack of accountability.

Gaddafi 'plot'

But he will not face trial over more serious allegations he went on to make in the media, including claims that MI6 was behind a bungled plot to assassinate Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi which left several civilians dead.

His girlfriend Annie Machon, also a former MI5 intelligence officer, accompanied him to court.

Mr Shayler says his allegations were made in the public interest and did not damage national security and so he should be protected under European human rights legislation, which will become part of English law in October.

The Crown Prosecution Service did not oppose bail.

There was laughter in court when Mr Wadham was forced to ask Chief Metropolitan Stipendiary Magistrate Graham Parkinson to return after forgetting to ask for reporting restrictions to be lifted.

The magistrate accepted the request, but warned that other orders may be used to withhold sensitive information at a later date.

Leave to watch football

Outside the court Mr Shayler said he was "very glad" the legal process had got under way.

"I'm glad the legal process had begun. It gives us all the chance to examine the Official Secrets Act in the light of the Human Rights legislation," he told reporters.

He was also relieved to have been granted special permission to spend a weekend away watching his favourite football team, Middlesbrough, play.

Bail had been granted on the condition that he lived with his brother Philip in Wimbledon, south west London.

But Mr Parkinson said he could go to Teesside to watch Saturday's match against Leeds United at the Riverside Stadium.

"Just imagine the publicity if the chief magistrate stopped him," the magistrate said.

Mr Shayler is due back in court on 21 September.