Woman ‘attacked with a machete by neo-Nazi MI5 agent’ demands apology
A woman who was allegedly abused by a suspected Security Service informant has asked for an apology from MI5.
It comes just days after the security service apologised for providing ‘incorrect information’ to the High Court in 2022 when the Attorney General tried to prevent the BBC from identifying the ‘misogynistic neo-Nazi’ agent who reportedly attacked his girlfriend with a machete.
The alleged victim told the BBC she believes she only matters to MI5 because she has ‘kicked up a fuss’ with her legal case, adding: ‘Where’s my apology? If I were to just go quietly away, they’d never think about me again.’
He was accused of exploiting his status to wage a long-running campaign of ‘terror’ against his girlfriend, including threatening to kill her.
The police also allegedly uncovered extremist material in X’s home, but he later left the country and was said to have continued intelligence work.
The BBC said it had also located a separate woman who had suffered at the hands of X in a different country.
In 2022, then-Attorney General Suella Braverman went to the High Court to stop the BBC airing a programme that would name the agent who also allegedly abused another woman.
An injunction was made in April 2022 to prevent the corporation from disclosing information likely to identify the man, referred to only as ‘X’ – even though Mr Justice Chamberlain said the BBC could still air the programme and the key issues, without identifying him.
At the hearing on Wednesday, the High Court heard that part of the written evidence provided by MI5, reported to be from a deputy director in the Security Service, was false and ‘misled’ proceedings.
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- Introducing This Is Not Right: Metro's year-long violence against women campaign
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Following the hearing, MI5 director-general Sir Ken McCallum said the agency had ‘offered an unreserved apology to the court’.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper told MPs it was ‘clearly a very serious matter to provide incorrect information to the court’.
In the programme about X, the broadcaster alleged the intelligence source was a misogynistic neo-Nazi who attacked his girlfriend with a machete.
Andrea Simon, director of the End Violence Against Women Coalition (EVAW), said ‘serious questions need to be asked about the culture within MI5 and wider government’ following the revelations.
She added: ‘No one should be able to use their power and status to perpetrate violence against women with impunity.
‘But unfortunately, this abuse is the inevitable outcome of the unchecked power and inequality that is built into our institutions and social structures.
‘We’ve seen mass resistance to abuse of police powers, and it is critical that intelligence agencies aren’t exempt from transparency and accountability.
‘This means transforming the institutional cultures that enable abuse and mask it in codes of silence and secrecy.’
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