David Smith spy case: How Ex-serviceman turned traitor while consuming conspiracy theories

David Ballantyne Smith was a lonely ex-serviceman who turned traitor while consuming online conspiracy theories and pro-Putin propaganda.
David Smith taking video of CCTV monitors in the British EmbassyDavid Smith taking video of CCTV monitors in the British Embassy
David Smith taking video of CCTV monitors in the British Embassy

Born in Paisley, the 58-year-old spent 12 years in the RAF before moving to Crawley in West Sussex and getting jobs at Gatwick Airport.

He has a grown-up daughter by an earlier relationship and had been married to his second wife Svetlana for 20 years, the Old Bailey was told.

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Smith told the court he was a patriotic Scot and had been proud to serve his country before his life went “downhill” after getting a job at the British Embassy in Berlin as a security guard.

He claimed he turned to drink and became depressed and lonely after his Ukrainian wife went back to the war-torn eastern region in her home country.

He expressed an interest in online conspiracy theories, saying: “I look at David Icke and Alex Jones’ InfoWars to get an alternative view. I just like both sides of the story.”

Smith said he had been a supporter of Russian-backed Donbas separatists but said he changed his mind and became “neutral” after visiting cemeteries and seeing lines of freshly dug graves in 2019.

A life-long collector of military memorabilia, Smith’s support for Russia appeared to be on prominent show in his home in Potsdam.

His living room was stuffed with Russian books and ornaments including a Russian Federation flag, Soviet military hat and a life-sized cuddly Russian toy Rottweiler and Communist toy Lada car.

Inside his work locker was a cartoon of Russian president Vladimir Putin with his hands around former German chancellor Angela Merkel in Nazi uniform espousing the false rhetoric used to invade Ukraine.

After his arrest, Smith continued to collect military memorabilia while at Belmarsh prison in the form of merchandise relating to the controversial Azov Battalion, forcing him to deny far-right sympathies.

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The court heard Smith had 800 euro at his flat on his arrest and had stopped withdrawing money from his bank, betraying his alternative income from Russia.

Giving evidence, Smith claimed he only wanted to give his employer “a slap” for the way he had been treated, saying his depression worsened during the Covid lockdown.

He said: “I was angry that everyone was sitting at home with full pay when we were having to go to work every day.

“I just went downhill after that. I would fly off the handle at the slightest thing.

“Call that spoiled child, obstinate prat maybe – I was full of my own self-importance. I wanted to teach the embassy a lesson.”

Asked repeatedly to prove his remorse and name his Russian handler, Smith said: “There is no-one. There is no-one. There is no-one.”

Mr Justice Wall dismissed Smith’s attempts to explain away and minimise his activities, saying he was not a witness “of truth”.

The embassy’s head of security Bharat Joshi estimated the cost to the taxpayer of security measures in the wake of the case at £820,000.

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On the human cost, he said: “The breach of trust, in particular disclosure of people’s personal information, has had a negative impact on staff morale and wellbeing.”

A security review had to be carried out for every member of staff.

Mr Joshi said: “They had to inform the individuals identified in this material that they must work on the assumption their personal details had been passed on and the staff have had to manage that.

“This had a significant and negative impact on many embassy staff, as described, feelings of anger, betrayal and upset and concern at the implications of their details being shared with a hostile state actor.”

Neil Keeping, from the National Crime Agency, said there were “potentially catastrophic” consequences for disclosure of staff details linked to their “key numbers” and addresses.