A former MoD analyst leaked top secret weapons intelligence in a revenge ‘plot’ after complaining police did not take his homophobic assault claims seriously, a court heard.
Software engineer Simon Finch denies recording and disclosing secret defence information and refusing to give authorities access codes to three electronic devices, the Old Bailey heard.
The 50-year-old, of Swansea, is accused of sending technical details classified as ‘secret’ and ‘top secret’ in an email containing operational information about the weapons system, which is still in use by the armed forces, his trial heard this morning.
He allegedly wrote down the confidential information from memory and emailed it to nine addresses on 28 October 2018.
The analyst complained to recipients of mistreatment at the hands of the UK state, including police, the NHS and his employers, jurors heard.
Among the perceived slights was a claim that he had been forced to defecate on the floor of Merseyside police station because he had been refused quick access to the toilet.
Simon Finch, 50, (pictured) is accused of unlawfully recording secret information and then disclosing it. Jurors heard the secrets would have been ‘useful to an enemy’ of the state
Finch said he had suffered two serious homophobic assaults which ‘triggered’ a deterioration in his health that went ignored by officers and healthcare professionals, it was said.
The defence expert insisted he had also been dragged along the floor and subjected to humiliation at the hands of officers on duty, it was said.
He denies breaching the Official Secrets Act by making a ‘damaging’ disclosure and recording information which could be ‘useful to an enemy’ of the state.
When a criminal probe was launched into the alleged disclosure, he then refused to hand over passcodes to his electronic devices to investigating officers, the court heard.
The court heard he had reached the conclusion that ‘he should have no care for national security if the nation had no care for his security.’
An expert damage assessment found that the release of the information could give ‘a hostile adversary of the UK… an understanding of the function’ of the system and ‘methods of countering it’, prosecutor Mark Heywood QC told jurors.
The systems analyst worked for private contractors including BAE Systems and QinetiQ from the late 1990s until 2018.
He appeared for his trial on Tuesday morning wearing a mustard-coloured jumper and tinted spectacles.
Opening the prosecution case, Mr Heywood told jurors: ‘Simon Finch is 50 years old and a British citizen. He shares British nationality with the other key participants in this trial.
Simon Finch, from Swansea, denies breaching the Official Secrets Act by making a ‘damaging’ disclosure and recording information which could be ‘useful to an enemy’ of the state
‘Unlike most of us, for many years he occupied a very important and special role as someone with expert technical ability.
‘He was employed in the design, testing and configuration of a UK weapons system on which the security of the realm partly depends.
Finch leaked details about the missile system which is still in use by the armed forces to recipients including an MP, charities, trade unions and law firms, the court heard.
Mr Heywood said: ‘On 28 October 2018 an email was sent to eight recipients.
‘The email addresses suggest that the recipients included members of law firms, charities, trade unions, [and] a Member of Parliament.
‘It was copied to a ninth.
‘Suffice it to say the system in question is a UK missile system still in use by armed forces of this country.’
Mr Heywood told the court that Finch began to experience problems in his personal life shortly after becoming privy to the classified information.
He continued: ‘There was an appearance before the courts in 2016 which you will hear about, the loss of his job in 2018 and then after that gathering frustration to get others to pay attention.
The analyst went out armed with a machete and a hammer after his health began to spiral but was let off with a suspended sentence in 2016, jurors heard.
Finch leaked the top secret weapons intelligence in a revenge ‘plot’ after complaining police did not take his assault claims seriously, a jury at the Old Bailey heard where the trial continues
He insisted the downward spiral was triggered by two assaults spaced six weeks apart at the hands of attackers who thought he was gay, it was said.
The conviction ‘led him to plot a very deliberate kind of retaliation’ prosecutors told the court.
Mr Heywood added: ‘He first wrote down extensive details that he could remember – he’s a highly intelligent man – details in the national interest that had been gained through his privileged and trusted access to secret information.
‘He then distributed that information sent.
‘Both in making the records which he did in the first place and then deciding to make those disclosures he made, he was acting consciously in breach first of his own solemn promises he ad written down in declarations over the years, and second of the law, particularly the criminal law, for this kind of information.
‘The document he attached to the email set out technical detail classified as secret and top secret… (and) contained detail about the operational performance of the system to which I have referred.
‘A full damage assessment has since been carried out to find consequences or possible consequences of that information being disclosed into the public domain.
‘Expert evaluation has concluded that the release of information of that kind, for example to a hostile adversary of the UK, would give them an understanding of the function of that relevant system which in turn would allow them methods of countering it.’
Mr Heywood said the disclosure could create a ‘risk to the UK and to others with whom that technology is shared’.
Jurors will hear more details about the system during closed sessions of the court, with journalists and the public not allowed into those proceedings.
Finch, of Swansea, denies recording information for any purpose prejudicial to the safety or interests of the state which was calculated to be or might be or was intended to be directly or indirectly useful to an enemy.
He also denies making a damaging disclosure relating to defence which was in his possession by virtue of his position as crown servant or government contractor, and failing to comply with a disclosure notice by knowingly failing to make disclosure as required by that notice which would facilitate access to three electronic devices.
The trial continues.