Civil servant fined £2,500 for leaving secret al-Qaida files on train

https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2008/oct/28/terrorism-security-secret-documents

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A senior civil servant today pleaded guilty to breaching the Official Secrets Act after leaving top-secret documents on a train.

Richard Jackson, 37, of Yateley, Hampshire, was fined £2,500 at City of Westminster magistrates court after entering his guilty plea.

His case followed an investigation launched in June after highly sensitive Whitehall intelligence files on al-Qaida and Iraq were left on a train from London.

A member of the public found them inside an orange cardboard envelope on a train from Waterloo station to Surrey and passed them on to the BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner.

One of the documents was a seven-page report by the joint intelligence committee entitled Al-Qaida Vulnerabilities.

Classified as top-secret, the intelligence assessment on al-Qaida was so sensitive that every document was numbered and marked "for UK/US/Canadian and Australian eyes only". It is understood the assessment also contained reports on the state of the Islamist terror network in Afghanistan and neighbouring Pakistan.

The document reportedly contained names of individuals or locations that might have been useful to Britain's enemies.

The second document, commissioned from the committee by the Ministry of Defence (MoD), contained an analysis of Iraq's security forces. It included a top-secret and in some places "damning" assessment of Iraq's security forces.

Jackson was on secondment to the Cabinet Office from the MoD at the time the documents were lost.

The court heard that the intelligence files "had the potential to damage national security and UK international relations".

Jackson, who had taken the files home inadvertently, was "physically sick" when he discovered their loss, the court was told. He faces a maximum sentence of three months in jail or a fine.

Throughout today's proceedings, Jackson spent much of his time with his head in his hands. Neil Saunders, defending, said his client accepted his mistake but "there was never any risk to any lives whatsoever".

Saunders said: "He was under extreme pressure at this time and it may well be partly because of his own role, the team he was leading and the work he was being asked to conduct that he has made this gross error of judgment."

He said Jackson had a host of glowing references that showed he was "someone who would never deliberately let anyone down".

The court heard how Jackson did not report the loss of the files until the following day as his immediate bosses were abroad.

Deborah Walsh, prosecuting, said: "This delay in reporting delayed any action to recover the files. There's ample evidence that Mr Jackson failed to take such care to prevent the unauthorised disclosure of the documents as somebody in his position may reasonably be expected to take."

The security breach was the latest in a series that has embarrassed the government. In November last year, discs containing child benefit records of 25 million people were lost. In January the details of 600,000 potential recruits were lost by a naval officer.