Daniel Khalife: Ex-soldier guilty of Iran espionage after daring Wandsworth prison escape
A former British soldier who staged an audacious prison break by strapping himself under a food delivery truck has been convicted of spying for Iran.
Daniel Khalife, 23, used a pair of kitchen trousers to fashion a makeshift sling, before clinging to the underside of the van as it left HMP Wandsworth.
The incident sparked a major security alert and a four-day nationwide manhunt that ultimately resulted in Khalife’s recapture.
Khalife, who had served as a soldier in the British Army, pleaded guilty to escaping lawful custody mid-way through his trial at Woolwich crown court.
A jury has now found him guilty of collecting secret information to pass to Iranian agents.
Khalife denying spying for the Middle Eastern regime, claiming instead that his activities had been part of a ploy to become a double agent for the UK.
He had gathered restricted and classified material, including the names of serving soldiers including those in the Special Air Service and Special Boat Service.
Khalife was also accused of leaving behind a fake bomb at his barracks in Stafford before going AWOL from the Army when he was about to be caught, but the jury cleared him of a bomb hoax.
Khalife was being held at HMP Wandsworth on remand when he broke out on September 6 last year.
Footage played during the trial showed Khalife leaving his cell that morning and carrying out his kitchen duties.
Later the same day, a headcount by guards revealed that he had escaped.
Khalife was caught on camera brazenly shopping after his breakout of prison - buying clothes from Marks & Spencer, purchasing a coffee at McDonald's and walking by the River Thames near to Richmond Bridge.
On the day he broke out, he was spotted in Whittaker Avenue, Richmond, and entering a Mountain Warehouse shop where he browsed for clothes.
The following day he was shopping for clothes in Marks & Spencer in Kew, and he went to a shopping centre in Hammersmith where he entered Sainsbury's wearing a face mask.
On September 8, CCTV showed Khalife casually buying a newspaper, when developments in his own manhunt were on the news agenda.
Khalife was arrested just before 11am the following day, after he had changed clothes and treated himself to a McDonald’s espresso.
He was on a mountain bike on a canal towpath in west London, carrying a Waitrose bag with a phone, receipts, a diary and around £200 in notes, when he was spotted by a plain-clothes detective sergeant.
The officer said Khalife was “friendly towards me - quite jovial”, when captured.
"He was pleasant. He congratulated me on catching him”, he told the court.
Khalife was part of the Royal Corps of Signals when he became a spy for Iran.
On a joint operation between British and US forces in Texas in 2021, he contacted his Iranian handlers to report his location.
He also took photos on his phone of passwords, a floppy disk and a USB stick used to access sensitive military communications systems during the trip to Texas.
He was accused during the trial of endangering the life of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe while she was being unjustly held in an Iranian prison, by sending a fake intelligence document suggesting the British Government was not willing to negotiate over her release.
In January 2022, fake documents purporting to be from MPs, senior military officials and the security services were found in Khalife’s Army room.
Khalife’s prison break led to an audit of the troubled HMP Wandsworth, where 81 points of failure were identified.
CCTV cameras had not worked for more than a year, prison staff were overwhelmed and unable to account for inmates, the jail had been starved of resources, and drugs and contraband were rife among prisoners.
The Ministry of Justice responded with a £100 million injection of funds for “urgent improvements”.
Khalife suggested during his trial that he had staged a fake prison break attempt earlier in his spell behind bars, while hoping to be moved away from violent prisoners. But he said it failed as no one reported him.
He told jurors he had concluded a real prison break was the only way to ensure he was placed into a secure unit when transferred to HMP Belmarsh.
His barrister Gul Nawaz Hussain KC called Khalife “hapless” and branded the spying plot more “Scooby-Doo” than “007”.
Bethan David, Head of the Counter Terrorism Division at the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “As a serving soldier of the British Army Daniel Khalife was employed and entrusted to uphold and protect the national security of this country. But, for purposes of his own, Daniel Khalife, used his employment to undermine national security.
“He surreptitiously sought out and obtained copies of secret and sensitive information which he knew were protected and passed these on to individuals he believed to be acting on behalf of the Iranian state. The sharing of the information could have exposed military personnel to serious harm, or a risk to life, and prejudiced the safety and security of the United Kingdom.
“The prosecution was able to use mobile phone evidence, notes written by Khalife himself and CCTV footage to piece together and demonstrate that Khalife had gathered and shared much of this classified information, accepted hundreds of pounds for his efforts and even travelled to Turkey as part of his unlawful conduct.
“It is against the law to collate and share secret and sensitive information for a purpose against the interests of the United Kingdom. Such hostile and illegal activities jeopardise the national security of the United Kingdom, and the CPS will always seek to prosecute anyone that carries out counter state threats.”
Khalife has been remanded into custody until his sentencing hearing on December 12.