Yahoo Movies MI5 agent used his spy status to terrorise girlfriend he met on a dating site
An MI5 agent has been accused of using his status to terrorise a woman he met online, later moving abroad to continue his intelligence work despite being under investigation.
According to the BBC the foreign national cannot be named "despite evidence he is a threat to women", after the government took action against the broadcaster to prevent his identity from being revealed.
"Evidence shows that he is a right-wing extremist with a violent past," the BBC reports, adding that in an "unprecedented legal battle" they argued that women have a right to know his identity in order to be protected from potential harm.
As part of their investigation, the BBC spoke to Beth, a British national who met the agent on a dating site. She says at first he was "charming", and as their relationship progressed they decided to move in together.
However, Beth – who is using a fake name to protect her identity – claims his true self unravelled and that he showed himself to be "a misogynist and extremist, obsessed with violence and cruelty." During their relationship, she says he sexually assaulted her and was abusive and coercive. Beth claims that the agent used his position with the British security services to terrorise her.
"He had complete control. I was a shadow of who I am now," she told the BBC. "At the end of the relationship he dictated my every waking hour – where I went, who I saw, how I worked, what I did at work, what I wore." Beth says the MI5 agent made her "feel absolutely worthless" and used "the fact that I had mental health problems to bully me and to make me feel more vulnerable".
As part of his alleged reign of terror, she says he collected weapons and forced her to watch violent videos of executions and murder. "There was so much psychological terror from him to me, that ultimately culminated in me having a breakdown, because I was so afraid of everything – because of how he'd made me think, the people that he was involved with, and the people who he worked for," Beth recalled, explaining that the agent told her he worked as an informant infiltrating extremist networks for the British security services.
According to the BBC's report, Beth says he told her that she wouldn't be able to report his behaviour because of his status. "It meant that I couldn't speak out about any of his behaviour towards me, any of the violence I went through, sexual or physical, because he had men in high places who always had his back, who would intervene and who would actively kill me, if I spoke out," she says.
In one clip obtained by the BBC, the agent tells Beth he is going to kill her before attacking her with a machete. Despite filming the incident and reporting it to the police, the case was dropped by the Crown Prosecution Service due a "lack of evidence".
Speaking about the case, Refuge CEO Ruth Davison said: "The news that an MI5 agent has used his status to perpetrate domestic abuse is abhorrent, and the fact that the identity of a man who has expressly stated his 'murderous' intentions, is being protected, is terrifying for women and girls. These revelations, uncovered by the BBC, should not be taken lightly."
She went on, "For too long, we have seen how powerful men have used their status as a tool to abuse, and we have seen how those whose work should see them protecting women and girls, and society at large, is instead used as a vehicle which allows them to abuse. This cannot be with impunity. Enough is enough."
Refuge’s National Domestic Abuse Helpline 0808 2000 247, is available 24 hours a day 7 days a week for free, confidential specialist support. You can also visit click here to request a safe time to be contacted or to access live chat (live chat available 3pm-10pm, Monday to Friday). For support with tech abuse, see Refuge Tech Safety.
You Might Also Like
