Geoffrey Prime E-Book

David Cole

• Herausgeber: Robert Hale Non Fiction
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017

Beschreibung

Geoffrey Prime was a Soviet spy throughout the most intense years of the Cold War. The linguist served his paymasters for almost fourteen years and became the most important Russian mole in British signals intelligence since German Enigma decryptions were leaked from Bletchley Park during World War Two. Recruited while serving in Berlin with the Royal Air Force, he became uniquely placed to betray his country's innermost secrets when he later obtained employment at the nerve-centre of government communications, GCHQ. By various clandestine methods of transcription and meetings overseas with his controllers, Prime divulged information on a massive scale until shortly before his arrest. His eventual downfall lay in an inability to control his lust for pre-pubescent girls and the conscience of a wife unable to live with the knowledge that her husband was not only a child molester but also an espionage agent. This is an involved story of debased morality and dishonour, siezed upon by an unscrupulous regime to its own advantage, and unearthed by unsuspecting provincial detectives in a tale of a police investigation on an unprecedented scale.

Leseprobe

Geoffrey Prime

The Imperfect Spy

D.J. Cole

ROBERT HALE

First published in 1998 by Robert Hale, an imprint of

The Crowood Press Ltd, Ramsbury, Marlborough, Wiltshire, SN8 2HR

This e-book first published in 2017

www.crowood.com

© D.J. Cole 1998

All rights reserved. This e-book is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

ISBN 978 0 7198 2616 0

The right of D.J. Cole to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

Contents

Acknowledgements

List of Illustrations

Introduction

1Irresistible Urges

2Betrayal and Capture

3A Disparate Life

4Yet More Guilty Secrets

5Facing Facts

6The Path Towards Truth

7Confronting Reality

8An Embryo Spy Revealed

9The Finished Article

10Arcane Treachery

11A Complete Picture?

12A Matter of Little Mercy

13The Secure Stable Door!

Bibliography

Index

Acknowledgements

The author is grateful for the assistance of several of his former colleagues who worked with him on the Prime affair, and particularly to Martin Stote, Midlands reporter for the Daily Star, who has an intimate knowledge of the case and was able to identify useful areas for background research.

Illustrations of Prime are reproduced with the agreement of the chief constable of West Mercia Constabulary; those of Rhona Prime with the permission of Cheltenham photographer Michael Charity and the remainder by courtesy of Express Newspapers.

Thanks are also due to the editor of the Sunday Times for allowing me to quote previously published material; Crown copyright is reproduced with the permission of the controller of HMSO.

List of Illustrations

1Geoffrey Prime at the time of his arrest

2A mechanical representation of Geoffrey Prime compiled by his last victim

3Helena Overy, the first Mrs Prime

4Rhona Prime, Geoffrey Prime’s second wife

5Bogus letters and a radio schedule

6Prime’s radio and tape recorder, chemically impregnated note pads and his small inward and outward one-time pads

7Prime’s dismantled briefcase showing secret compartments in base

8Detective Chief Superintendent David Cole QPM, West Mercia Constabulary

9Detective Chief Inspector P. Picken and Detective Superintendent A. Mayo of the West Mercia Constabulary

10Chief Constable Robert Cozens CBE, QPM, West Mercia Constabulary

Illustration Credits

West Mercia Constabulary: 1, 2. Michael Charity: 4. Express Newspapers: 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 & 10.

Introduction

They call me Rowlands.

Geoffrey Arthur PrimeRussian Espionage Agent 1968 – 81

The arrest of Geoffrey Prime in the late spring of 1982 for violently molesting young females in rural England was the unlikely precursor to a police investigation that embraced the murky world of international espionage.

Prime had for many years been engaged in highly secretive and sensitive government work as a Russian interpreter. His character defects, attributed by many to his unhappy start in life, made him an attractive proposition to those always on the look-out for potential traitors during the Cold War period. When they happened upon Prime they found, not only a dupe ripe for blackmail, but also a person already committed to the ideals of Soviet socialism. It says much for the cunning of the individual and the skills of his masters that he was able to conceal his true allegiances and treacherous behaviour for fourteen years. It says nothing for the so-called safeguards and systems put in place to prevent such behaviour.

Inevitably he met his match: a strong-willed wife and a stubborn detective. They were the reasons he was brought to book, not the sophisticated trappings of counter-infiltration methods – he evaded them all. The scorn of a woman wronged and the dogged determination of an ordinary policeman seeking truth were the vital ingredients in his downfall.

Before his capitulation the well-trained spy led his pursuers a merry dance, but when he finally succumbed he told as full a story as any interrogator is ever likely to obtain about the life of a seditious enemy agent.

The following story is true to the facts and is not exaggerated. The only changes necessary have been those made to protect the identity of the innocents involved, because espionage was only half of the story.

1 Irresistible Urges

If you co-operate with me you won’t get hurt

Child molester

The long, slender, heavily nicotine-stained fingers picked through index cards in a cardboard box with a clerk’s precise mannerisms. A cigarette drooped from the man’s lips and smoke curled upwards round twitching nostrils towards his eyes, causing a squint of discomfort. He was at the end of his tether and about to do something he had long fought against. Now he had been forced into it. As always, he found someone to blame other than himself when things went wrong. Four years earlier he tried to escape the clutches of those who controlled his destiny, but they pursued him relentlessly, to the point of his present despair.

The diverse life of Geoffrey Prime – wages boy, regular serviceman, government linguist, taxi-driver, wine salesman and sexual misfit – was about to enter a final phase, one that would inexorably lead to a climactic conclusion.

The narrowed eyes lit upon a particular card; the detail looked promising and the address was quite close to home. Stuffing it quickly into his pocket Prime left the house, propelled by mounting sexual energy and determined to do something he had fantasized about for years.

Minutes later the telephone rang in a little girl’s home.

‘Is that Wendy?’

The innocent eleven-year-old’s affirmative reply was not everything the caller wanted to know.

‘Can I speak to your mummy or daddy?’

‘They’re not here.’

That was more like it!

‘Oh! Are you on your own?’

She was.

‘That’s a pity. It’s Mr Brookes speaking – you know, the plumber. Your dad has asked me to see to a pipe in the loft. I’m in the area, so will it be all right if I just call in to see what I’ll need to do for the job?’

In early April 1980 the frenetic pace of modern life bypassed the quiet Gloucestershire village of Dursley and rushed along the motorway connecting the Midlands and south-west England. The threat of serious crime belonged in other places and parents still confidently allowed children to play in fields or walk the lanes. There was certainly no reason to fear for their safety when, at a reasonable age, they were left in the security of their own homes.