'More Scooby Doo than 007': Daniel Khalife sentenced to 14 years in jail after prison escape and spying for Iran

3 February 2025, 13:03 | Updated: 3 February 2025, 14:32

Former soldier Daniel Khalife has been sentenced to 14 years and three months behind bars after being found guilty of spying for Iran.

Khalife, who escaped from prison by clinging to the underside of a delivery van, was found to have collated and passed on classified documents, military communications and information about soldiers to Iranian authorities over a period of more than two years.

Khalife sparked a manhunt in September 2023 after escaping from HMP Wandsworth in south London while on remand for the spying charges, clinging to the underside of a food delivery lorry with homemade straps as he made his escape.

He was being held in the Category B prison accused of handing secret information and passing it to Iranian intelligence, including a list of soldiers serving in the SAS.

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During his trial, Khalife told the court how he had wanted to "prove himself" to British intelligence by becoming a double-agent, working with an Iranian "handler".

However, his own lawyer described how the escapee carried out a "hapless and slapstick" spying mission that resembled a "Scooby Doo sketch".

Appearing in court on Monday, Khalife was sentenced on three counts:

• Count 1 (breaching Official Secrets Act): 6 years
• Count 2 (breaching Terrorism Act): 6 years
• Count 3 (escaping from prison): 2 years 3 months

Khalife's spying activities will not go down in the "annals of history", his barrister told the court on Monday.

Daniel Khalife charged with escaping Wandsworth prison

"There's no way that what Mr Khalife did is going to wind up being a lesson for budding spies," Gul Nawaz Hussain KC told the judge.

He told Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb: "What Daniel Khalife clearly chose to do was not born of malice, was not born of greed, religious fervour or ideological conviction.

"His intentions were neither sinister nor cynical."

She told Khalife: "When you joined the Army as a young man, you had the makings of an exemplary soldier.

"However, through the repeated violation of your oath of service, you showed yourself to be, instead, a dangerous fool."

She added: "You embarked on the course of conduct I have described because of a selfish desire to show off, to achieve by unregulated means what you were told will be difficult for you to achieve by conventional promotion.

"The mere fact that you started on this dangerous and fantastical plan demonstrates your immaturity and lack of wisdom, that you thought it was appropriate to insert yourself - an unauthorised, unqualified and uninformed junior soldier - into communication with an enemy state is perhaps the clearest indication of the degree of folly in your failure to understand at the most obvious level the risk you posed."

Khalife attempted to contact MI5 and MI6 but was ignored on every occasion, the judge said.

She added: "The greater mischief in your offending is that, having failed to engage any response from the intelligence services of the United Kingdom, you continued betraying your country and exposed others to the possibility of harm."

Some of the documents he had forged to pass to the Iranians were "laughably fake", Mr Hussain told the court.

Sentencing Daniel Khalife, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said it was a "shame" that the former soldier had spent two years in contact with agents of Iran after joining the army at a commendably young age.

"This began early in your year of training for the Royal Corps of Signals," the judge told him.

Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said she had "no doubt" that Khalife had used the fact that his mother is Iranian to gain the trust of his contacts.

The judge began her sentencing remarks by ordering him to pay £10,000 towards the cost of his prosecution, and to forfeit items seized by police including his phones and notebooks.

Commander Dominic Murphy, Head of the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command said: “This sentence reflects the gravity of the offences committed by Khalife. The threat to the UK from states such as Iran is very serious, so for a soldier in the Army to be sharing sensitive military material and information with them is extremely reckless and dangerous.

“I’d like to reiterate my praise to all those who worked on this investigation – those who looked into Khalife’s activity in sharing information with the Iranians, but also the many colleagues from agencies and police forces who assisted us after his escape from prison.

“It was thanks to a combination of fantastic support from the public, along with some brilliant police work that we were able to find and arrest Khalife after his escape and make sure he faced justice.

“This outcome and sentence should serve as a warning to others that the illegal sharing of information in this way will be treated extremely seriously by security services and police, and we will use the full force of the law against those who put the UK’s security at risk.”