BBC investigations correspondent
BBCThe woman at the centre of a case in which MI5 has admitted giving false evidence to three courts says she wants the service to give her a public apology.
Beth was attacked with a machete by her former partner, a neo-Nazi misogynist who used his MI5 role to coercively control her.
We revealed on Wednesday that MI5 gave false evidence to three courts over its handling of the man – a paid informant known only as agent X.
MI5 has now issued an “unreserved apology” describing what happened as a “serious error” – adding it took full responsibility.
But speaking for the first time since then, Beth – not her real name – says: “Where’s my apology?”
She believes she only matters to MI5 because she is “kicking up a fuss” by taking a legal case against the service and “throwing a spotlight on the way that they behave”.
“But otherwise, if I were to just go quietly away, they’d never think about me again,” she told the BBC.
Beth’s legal case claims MI5 breached her human rights by failing to protect her from agent X.
She is pursuing a formal complaint at an independent court, called the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT). Judges ruled much of the case should be held in secret after MI5 said it does not confirm agent identities – under a principle known as neither confirm nor deny (NCND) – and had not done so with X.
Secret IPT sessions would be closed to Beth and her lawyers, and therefore prevent her from knowing what MI5 says in response to her claim.
“It felt completely offensive to be told that my case would have to be held in private and that I wouldn’t be privy to any of the information because that’s how they operated, as if they’re allowed some special licence to completely breach my human rights.”
However, I revealed on Wednesday that I had been told by a senior MI5 officer that X was an agent. The disclosure happened when MI5 contacted me to try to stop a BBC story about his extremism.
The IPT was one of the three courts to which MI5 gave false evidence, including by stating it had never confirmed X’s agent status to me.
MI5 first lied in 2022, when the government took me and the BBC to court in an attempt to block us reporting on agent X’s wrongdoing – and succeeded in banning us from identifying him.
Beth says the false evidence “proves what MI5 are capable of”.
“[It] feels like all my worst suspicions have been confirmed,” she adds.
“Everything that I was told by X about them, at the time we were together, has actually been proven to be the case – that they are unscrupulous people who will stop at nothing to achieve what they want.”
Beth met agent X – a foreign national – on a dating site. But, over time, he became physically, mentally and sexually abusive.
After attacking Beth with a machete, in a case that was dropped by prosecutors after police failed to obtain the video of the attack, X left the UK while under police investigation and began work for a foreign intelligence agency.
“What concerns me so much is that, as far as we know, he is a free man,” says Beth. “I don’t want other women to have to put up with things like this. It’s disgusting.”
She believes MI5 has a particular type of power that enables it to avoid transparency like other organisations.
MI5 says it is conducting an internal investigation into the false evidence, which may result in disciplinary action. The senior MI5 corporate witness who gave false evidence says he thought he was telling the truth.
The Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, has also announced an independent external review of how MI5 gave false evidence. It is being conducted by Sir Jonathan Jones KC, former head of the government’s legal service.
‘I’ve lost years of my life’
Beth’s case will now head back to the specialist IPT court, which will reconsider the decision to rule that MI5 can refuse to confirm that X was an agent and therefore keep evidence secret from her.
Until this is decided, the full case will not be heard.
When I was first in contact with Beth, she had recently suffered a breakdown because of X’s behaviour towards her. She has come a long way in the years since.
The legal process is re-traumatising but necessary, Beth says.
“I’ve already lost years of my life to X and his abuse – there seems to be no end to it.
“But it seems like it’s the only way that I might, potentially, get some sort of reasonable justice.”
When asked about the wider implication of her case, Beth says it is “really important”.
She says there is “so much violence carried out on women by men,” adding, “whatever we can do as a society against it needs to be done”.
“I am one of the lucky ones because I’ve been able to speak about it and I’ve been listened to and so many don’t get listened to.”
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