John Vassall: victim, spy, traitor, prisoner

In 1962, civil servant John Vassall was sentenced to 18 years imprisonment for espionage following an MI5 investigation and a trial at the Old Bailey. Vassall was homosexual, and while working as a clerk at the British Embassy in Moscow (1954-56), was caught in a KGB ‘honeytrap’. Vassall was blackmailed into passing secrets to the Soviet Union, and then started receiving payments for his efforts.

Using evidence from files released to The National Archives by MI5, contemporary records specialist, Mark Dunton, will piece together a portrait of John Vassall, focusing on his years in prison, the revelations from his many interviews with MI5 officers, his changing moods, his relations with famous fellow prisoners, and his awareness of a changing Britain outside the prison walls.

Image credit: Keystone Pictures USA/ZUMAPRESS.com/Mary Evans

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