Former soldier Daniel Khalife visited McDonald’s after Wandsworth prison escape, court told

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A former British army soldier accused of passing secret information to Iran allegedly visited a McDonald’s and shops after escaping from HMP Wandsworth, a court has heard.

Daniel Khalife, 23, is alleged to have absconded from the category B jail in south London while on remand by strapping himself to the underside of a food delivery lorry on 6 September 2023.

He was being held in custody after allegedly handing over sensitive documents to his Iranian handlers, and travelling to Turkey to deliver them a package, a court has heard. This included the names and details of service personnel, including those serving in the UK’s special forces.

Prosecutor Mark Heywood KC told the jury at Woolwich Crown Court on Wednesday that Khalife “quite deliberately escaped” after being escorted to the kitchen where he had a job.

His absence was discovered during a headcount and all movement in the prison was suspended, while the lorry driver was contacted by his head office and told to search the vehicle, the jury was told.

While both he and police officers searched an empty truck, a dog unit joined and “appeared to show special interest to the back and rear of the lorry”, so officers searched underneath.

They found a “makeshift sling” which could support an individual, while the driver recognised Khalife as “the person who was due to be there to help him but he didn’t show up”.

The prosecution said that, after escaping, the former soldier travelled to Richmond and went to Mountain Warehouse, and was pictured the next day in an M&S and Sainsbury’s while wearing a face mask and different clothing.

Mr Heywood said that on 9 September, the day of Khalife’s arrest, he was seen in a McDonald’s.

The prosecution says he was apprehended on a canal towpath in Northolt while riding a mountain bike with £200 in cash. When asked if he wished to see a doctor, he responded: “I don’t know how immigrants do it.”

The court was told the prison break came after Khalife previously absconded in January 2023 from his army barracks, while on bail, when he realised he would face criminal charges over allegations he passed classified information on to Iran’s intelligence service.

He is accused of leaving behind a fake explosive device on his desk which “deliberately” caused panic, before he lived for three weeks in a van he stole from the army, with fake number plates he had also stolen. A note left near the fake device said he knew he could soon face criminal charges and his options were “suicide or absconding”.

Day two of the trial at Woolwich Crown Court was told Khalife, who joined the army shortly before his 17th birthday, first made contact with Iran in April 2019. Between 4 and 10 August 2020, he flew with Turkish Airlines and stayed at the Hilton Istanbul Bomonti Hotel, having originally planned with his handler to go to Iran.

“That was, says the prosecution, an attempt at least to meet, engage, face-to-face directly. The original attempt was to go to Iran,” Mr Heywood said.

In a phone message, Khalife said he had “delivered a package to them”, with Mr Heywood adding: “He’s clearly reporting to a third party what happened in Istanbul.”

In messages to a contact saved as “David Smith”, Khalife described an internal military system, which identified service personnel and showed his willingness to gather information.

In one conversation, Smith said: “We are so loyal to our friends. We can work together for a lot of years.”

Khalife replied: “Absolutely, I won’t leave the military until you tell me to. 25 plus years.”

In February 2021, Khalife was deployed to Fort Hood in Texas, where he remained for the next two months and allegedly continued his contact with Iranian agents. He is accused of taking a number of screenshots of systems marked “Secret” which included a password record sheet, while Khalife was granted the second highest level of Nato security clearance that April.

Over the following months, the prosecution says he continued to share details, including a photo of a handwritten list of 15 soldiers, many of whom served in the SAS and Special Boat Service.

For his work, Khalife was allegedly paid in cash by the Iranian intelligence service, including a £1,500 payment which was left in a dog waste bag in Barnet and a £1,000 payment which he collected from Kensal Green Cemetery in October 2021.

The court heard that in November 2021 Khalife made two anonymous calls to MI5 from an unregistered mobile, having earlier tried to contact MI6. He said he had been in contact with Iran for more than two years and thought he could help the British security services as a “double agent”, and wanted to return to his normal life.

Khalife wrote an electronic note to himself, which stated that he had decided to start his own intelligence operation after being informed that he would not be eligible for developed vetting.

During his police interviews, he denied any wrongdoing and claimed to have given his Iranian handlers “bulls*** documents”, and had been attempting to build a “credible relationship” which would help him to become an agent for the British.

As well as the alleged prison escape, he denies a charge of gathering, publishing or communicating information that might be useful to an enemy, namely Iranian intelligence, contrary to the Official Secrets Act between 1 May 2019 and 6 January 2022.

He also denies having elicited or attempted to elicit personal information about armed forces personnel that was likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism from a Ministry of Defence administration system on 2 August 2021.

The trial continues on Thursday.