Daniel Khalife jailed for spying for Iran and prison escape

Daniel Khalife has been sentenced to 14 years and three months in prison after escaping while awaiting trial for spying for Iran. Khalife joined the army in September 2018 at the age of just 16 and soon after began passing sensitive information to Tehran, including the names of special forces soldiers. He was charged in January 2023 and fled Wandsworth prison eight months later, sparking a nationwide manhunt.

Khalife, now 23, was told by Judge Cheema-Grubb at Monday’s sentencing that he had “the potential to be a model soldier” when he joined the army but instead behaved “like a dangerous fool.” The judge added: “You are an attention seeker and you enjoyed the notoriety you gained from escaping prison.” Khalife, wearing a black sweatshirt, showed no reaction as he was led away from court.

The former soldier’s actions breached the Official Secrets Act and the Terrorism Act, and he was found guilty of spying for Iran following a trial at Woolwich Crown Court in November. During the trial, he admitted to escaping prison by strapping himself to the underside of a food delivery truck. He was also found not guilty of causing a bomb hoax at RAF Stafford in 2023, when three canisters with wires attached were found at the base where he lived and worked.

Prosecutors said Khalife was supposed to be “trusted to uphold and protect the security of the nation,” but he “used his employment to undermine” it. Judge Cheema-Grubb said in her sentencing: “It is a tragedy that not long after basic training, you spent over two years in contact with agents of Iran, whose interests are not aligned with the UK.” She added that Khalife had been vetted to have access to “significant amounts of sensitive material” when he began his relationship with Iran.

The judge said it was not possible to know the full details of all the information Khalife passed to his contacts. “The court must draw inferences but not speculate,” she added. Khalife contacted an individual with links to Iranian intelligence on Facebook soon after joining the army in September 2018. He developed a relationship with his Iranian contact and in August 2019 – less than a year after joining the army – was sent to Mill Hill Park in north London to collect $2,000 (£1,600) in a dog poo bag.

He then contacted MI6, saying he had been paid for passing false information to Iran and indicated he wanted to become a “double agent.” He did not reveal he was serving in the army, and the intelligence agency took no action. However, Khalife’s lawyers twice claimed during the trial that the plot was “clumsy” and more like “Scooby Doo” than “007.”

The court also heard mitigating factors, including Khalife’s age and a psychological report from 2023 which diagnosed him with antisocial personality disorder and narcissistic personality disorder. Khalife was arrested on a canal towpath in September 2023. During his time in the army, including while on military exercises in the US, Khalife amassed a large number of photos on his iPhone of secret communications equipment, including computer screens showing IP addresses. It is not clear how many photos he actually sent to Iran.

Khalife collected the names of 15 serving soldiers, including some from special forces. Initially, he only had surnames and initials, but he found a loophole in the army’s leave booking system that allowed him to look up and photograph soldiers’ names. These photos were later found on his phone. Prosecutors argued that he sent the list of soldiers to Iran and then deleted the evidence. However, Khalife denied ever sending the list, claiming the information he passed was “fake” or “useless.” He did, however, appear to have sent at least two classified documents – one on drones and another on “intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.”

The UK will never know the full extent of what information Khalife leaked, as most of his exchanges with his contacts were sent on the encrypted messaging app Telegram. Following the sentencing, Commander Dominic Murphy, head of the Metropolitan Police’s Counter Terrorism Command, said: “The threat to the UK from countries like Iran is very real, so for a serving soldier to share sensitive military material and information with them is incredibly reckless and dangerous.”

Khalife was arrested by plainclothes officers on September 9, 2023, three days after his escape, while riding a stolen bicycle on a canal towpath in north-west London – just 11 miles from Wandsworth. While on the run, he had attempted to contact the Iranians, sending a Telegram message which simply read: “I am waiting.” He received no reply. It was revealed at the sentencing hearing that Khalife’s escape cost the police over £250,000 in overtime, with more than 150 officers involved in the manhunt at one point.

Following his arrest, Khalife told police that he had intended to hand himself into the UK security services, having previously emailed MI6 back in 2019. Khalife told the jury that he escaped because he was held in a vulnerable prisoner unit, where most of the inmates were sex offenders, and that he had been warned that “terrorists” in Wandsworth prison would try to attack him. He said he believed that if he escaped, he would be placed in a high-security unit at Belmarsh prison.

An audit following the escape found 81 security failures at the prison. The Independent Monitoring Board said this also led to a “long overdue” upgrade of CCTV cameras, which had not been working for over a year. It was revealed that nearly 40% of the prison officers at Wandsworth were not at work on the day Khalife escaped. However, the Ministry of Justice insists the prison is adequately staffed.