Enigma man in court

Published on Thursday 27 September 2001 01:00

‘It’s a result for all who want to see this machine back’

A FORMER dealer in Second World War memorabilia yesterday pleaded guilty to handling a stolen Enigma encoding machine.

Dennis Yates, 58, from Nottinghamshire, admitted the charge of handling the Abwehr Enigma G312 machine, which was used by the Nazis to encrypt top-secret messages between their forces.

The machine, believed to be one of only three in the world, had been stolen from a display cabinet at Bletchley Park on 1 April last year during an open day at the former top-secret site, which was code-named Station X during the war.

It was eventually returned to the presenter of BBC’s Newsnight, Jeremy Paxman, after a spate of ransom demands were sent to Bletchley Park.

Appearing at Aylesbury Crown Court, Buckinghamshire, yesterday, Yates avoided a trial after admitting that he had held the stolen machine between 31 March and 19 November last year.

A separate charge of blackmailing Christine Large, the director of Bletchley Park, in Buckinghamshire, was ordered to lie on file.

Yates has insisted that he was merely acting as an innocent go-between for his client, known as The Master, who had purchased the machine in good faith. At a previous court appearance, he insisted he would be acquitted at any trial, saying: "All I did was broker the return of the machine and rotors to Bletchley Park."

But he refused to comment as he left court yesterday.

Ms Large said: "I’m very relieved. I think we have a result for all the people who want to see this machine back at Bletchley Park.

"It’s a great tribute to the excellent work done by the police and people involved this case," she added. "They’ve done a fantastic job."

Bletchley Park once housed 10,000 linguists, mathematicians and chess champions working to crack the Nazis’ codes. They were credited with helping to shorten the war by up to two years and saving thousands of lives.

Yates faces sentencing on 19 October.