Ex-government IT contractor Juan Joseph, 43, is accused of breaching the Official Secrets and National Security Acts while pursuing his complaint against the security service
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A disgruntled former MI5 employee leaked information to a foreign power, then tried to arrange a meeting in Latvia after claiming an assault at work, a partially secret trial has heard.
Ex-government IT contractor Juan Joseph, 43, is accused of breaching the Official Secrets and National Security Acts while pursuing his complaint against the security service.
Parts of his Old Bailey trial before Mr Justice Hilliard are being heard behind closed doors, with the public or press excluded.
Opening his trial on Thursday, prosecutor Jocelyn Ledward KC said: “In late 2024 and early 2025, whilst undoubtedly mentally unwell, he sent a number of emails, addressed to or copying into his communications, bodies representing one or more foreign countries.
“Those emails contained information which the prosecution say should not have been disclosed in that way, the disclosure of which was damaging to UK national interests.
“He also travelled to Riga in Latvia and by email asked to meet with representatives of the embassy of another country there, in a way that indicates he was intending to and preparing to make further such disclosures.”
Joseph had worked as an IT contractor for MI5 for more than a decade between September 8 2009 and October 30 2020.
In his job Joseph had some insight into MI5 capabilities and privileged access to information of “the highest classification”, jurors heard.
On August 4 2020, Joseph was taken from work to London’s St Thomas’s hospital while displaying what colleagues described as “symptoms of mental fragility, extreme anxiety and paranoia”, the court was told.
It was also suggested he may be having a heart attack and he submitted his resignation the next day, jurors heard.
A decision was made to remove his vetting and security clearance and his contract was terminated.
On being notified in person, he signed a declaration binding him to the terms of the Official Secrets Act.
He went on to raise a number of grievances against MI5, culminating in August 2024 when he applied to Westminster Magistrates’ Court for a summons to start a private prosecution.
It related to an offence of assault occasioning actual bodily harm which he alleged had been committed in April 2019 while at his place of work. A district judge refused his application.
Joseph then applied for a judicial review of the decision by the High Court which was when the alleged offending began.
On November 19 2024, Joseph allegedly sent an email containing sensitive information to the Administrative Court office of the High Court, copying in an address linked to a foreign state.
An assistant to the Chief Magistrate at Westminster Magistrates’ Court forwarded the email to police the same day, the court was told.
On December 8 2024, Joseph travelled to Riga and was stopped by police at Gatwick Airport on his return on December 15.
Officers seized five mobile phones and two computers but Joseph refused to hand over their pin numbers, saying he was an MI5 officer and needed authorisation.
He later provided some of the codes and officers recovered two photographs allegedly taken by Joseph near the embassy of the foreign state in Riga.
Officers also found Joseph had sent two emails to the same embassy requesting a meeting, while he had been away.
He allegedly asked to talk to a representative of the foreign state and disclosed information which was “protected” under the National Security Act.
Ms Ledward said: “It is clear from those two emails that the defendant’s trip to Riga was for the purpose of attempting to make physical contact with representatives of the foreign state through their embassy in Riga in order to disclose protected information to them.”
On January 13 2025, Joseph sent another email to a number of people complaining about his treatment by police at Gatwick Airport.
Jurors were told that email too contained “sensitive information” relating to security or intelligence and one of the recipients was an email address linked to a foreign state.
Joseph was arrested on January 30 2025 at an Ibis Hotel near his home in Sutton, south London, where he had reserved a room for two nights.
Ms Ledward said he was identified in the hotel lobby heading towards the exit and became “agitated” and asked to call a lawyer when officers held his arms.
Asked if he had anything capable of harming officers, Joseph allegedly said he was an armed MI5 officer and had a knife.
Officers seized a folding lock knife from his jacket pocket, jurors heard.
A search of Joseph’s home led to the discovery of a homemade card purporting to identify him as an MI5 officer, Ms Ledward said.
In police interview, Joseph denied disclosing anything he should not have and said he was not trying to damage the UK.
He claimed he was still working for the security service remotely and was allowed to have the knife in his ongoing role as an MI5 officer.
Ms Ledward said there was no dispute Joseph sent the emails or had the knife and an issue in the trial would be his state of mind.
She suggested the psychiatric evidence may provide an explanation that Joseph was “labouring under a terrible delusion” caused by paranoid schizophrenia, that he was the “victim of a terrible wrong” and was being “silenced”.
Jurors could consider if Joseph believed it was necessary to escalate his complaint to a foreign power under the delusional belief the information he shared was not harmful to UK interests when “plainly it was”.
Joseph denies two charges of making a damaging disclosure relating to security or intelligence, on November 19 2024 and January 13 2025.
He has pleaded not guilty to obtaining or disclosing “protected information” and “preparatory conduct” with the intention of committing acts constituting an offence contrary to the National Security Act 2023.
Joseph, from Sutton, south London, further denies possession of an offensive weapon.
The Old Bailey trial continues.
