Charges dropped in China spying case after lack of threat evidence

Prosecutors dropped charges on September 15 against two men accused of spying for China after concluding they could not obtain the government evidence required to show Beijing represented a threat to the United Kingdom at the time of the alleged offences, the director of public prosecutions said. Christopher Cash, a 30 year old former parliamentary researcher, and Christopher Berry, 33, had been charged under the Official Secrets Act and denied the allegations. Their trial had been due to begin in London this month.

Stephen Parkinson, the director of public prosecutions, wrote to parliamentary committee chairs that prosecutors had sought further witness statements from government officials over many months but none of the statements asserted that China represented a threat to national security at the time the offences were said to have occurred. He said a High Court judgment in a separate Russian espionage case had clarified that, for offences under the 1911 Official Secrets Act, an enemy must be a country that constituted a threat to national security at the time of the alleged conduct. When it became apparent that the necessary evidence would not be forthcoming by late...