Vulnerable MI6 agent murdered his child after returning from jihadi camp mission

MI6 sent a highly vulnerable agent to a jihadist training camp in Pakistan before he returned to the UK and murdered his child, it emerged on Sunday.

The man, who at the time was in his 20s, was sent overseas on a spying mission despite a vetting report assessing his emotional instability as “the highest it is possible to score”.

According to the Sunday Times, the leaked document showed that the MI6 recruit “had more in common with a psychotic person than an average member of the population” and was at risk of “severe shock and trauma”.

He had previously worked for MI5 but was then passed to MI6 who sent him to a village in Waziristan, on Pakistan's border with Afghanistan, to infiltrate Taliban and al-Qaeda terrorists who had fled there after 9/11.

It is claimed that the intelligence services recruit, who had been abused as a child, witnessed extreme violence in Waziristan, including watching the beheading of a family accused of being US spies. The recruit cannot be identified for legal reasons.

It is alleged that on his return to the UK, the informant “suffered vivid flashbacks and violent outbursts” before murdering his own child. Following his arrest, he was sent to a secure psychiatric unit until the trial.

‘Those people need to be held to account’

His lawyers argued that he should be convicted of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility but was convicted by a jury of murder at a trial that was largely held in secret.

They said the internal report by MI6 showed he was so vulnerable that he should never have been sent undercover to a terrorist training camp.

The intelligence agencies paid him tens of thousands of pounds in cash for information supplied to them over several years.

Liam Kotrie, of Mary Monson solicitors, based in Salford, who represented the agent, told The Telegraph: “The [psychological] report said he was incredibly susceptible to PTSD but he was not aware of the diagnosis or his own vulnerabilities but he was put to work in these situations.

“He was used. They [the intelligence services] thought they would get something from it - they ploughed money into the situation.

“I believe they got some intelligence - so for them, it was worth it. They have a duty of care but they didn't adhere to it and a child died.”

Mr Kotrie added: “Those people need to be held to account. I hope policies will change and that there will be policies in place when someone does something terrible as a result of work they do for security services that they think about the dangerous situations they put them in.”

The agencies have declined to comment under a longstanding principle that it “neither confirms nor denies” speculation about their activities.