'I'm a patriot, I love my country', Khalife tells court

Daniel Khalife has been giving evidence for the first time in his trial

The former British soldier accused of spying for Iran and escaping from prison has said he is "a patriot" who loves his country.

Giving evidence for the first time in his trial at Woolwich Crown Court, Daniel Khalife said "I am English" and that he was "against the regime in Iran".

Prosecutors allege Mr Khalife collected sensitive military information for Iran, and later hid underneath a food truck to escape Wandsworth prison in south-west London on 6 September 2023. He denies the charges.

Mr Khalife said he reached out to Iranian intelligence on social media platforms Facebook and Telegram when he was 17, sending them "fake" documents and receiving a "dead drop" of £1,500 in a dog poo bag in return.

Jurors on Wednesday were shown a page from one of Mr Khalife's notebooks in which he had written "spying", and then a little further down the page "contact Iranians then USA".

He told the court his plan was "to contact a foreign enemy, to give them fictitious information, to build a rapport with that enemy".

"I wanted to expose Iranian intelligence officers working inside the United Kingdom," he said.

A page from one of Daniel Khalife's notebooks shown to the court

'I am English and that is how I see it'

Earlier in the day, jurors heard about Mr Khalife's family life and childhood, having been born in Marylebone and growing up in the Richmond area of west London with his Iranian mother and Lebanese father.

Asked about his views on the UK, the 23-year-old said: “I am a patriot, It’s as simple as that. I love my country.

"I am English and that is how I see it."

Mr Khalife told the court he had read an article about a US servicewoman who defected to Iran and decided to contact the same organisation that was accused of recruiting her - the New Horizon Organization.

He reached out on Facebook to its secretary, Hamed Ghashghavi, a man who has been sanctioned by the US.

Mr Khalife said "the purpose of the exercise" was "to dupe him, fool him", and described making a fake document to send to Mr Ghashghavi.

"I wanted to build a level of trust with an individual that I thought was attached at least in some way to the Iranian Intelligent apparatus," Mr Khalife said.

Mr Khalife said he made calls on Telegram "always on the same tack, to mislead and deceive the foreign enemy" - adding that, on one occasion men, he thought were Iranian intelligence officers joined a call.

The defendant said he even made up the name of a British spy working inside Iran called Ali Reza.

"When the Iranians started to express an interest in assets working inside Iran, I created a document to make them believe there was such an asset," he said.

"There came a time when the Iranians essentially wanted to reward me with a sum of money."

A picture taken by Mr Khalife of his pocket, showing inside it what he says is a dog poo bag containing £1,500 in cash

He described travelling to London from his barracks in Blandford, south-west England, on 11 August 2019, and was directed by one of his Telegram contacts to Mill Hill Park.

The court heard that he then took a selfie and collected £1,500 cash in a dog poo bag - which he called a "dead drop". He said that he saw the men who dropped off the money in an Audi SUV.

He told the court he believed "these individuals could have been apprehended", and that within days he was trying to contact MI6 through its website.

Mr Khalife said that soon after the money drop, his Iranian contacts said they wanted him to travel to Iran - but told them that his passport had expired.

He said: "I felt it would be extremely dangerous for me to travel to a state that is extremely hostile to us and to who I was providing fictitious information to...

"Maybe they wanted to apprehend me and put me in harm’s way."

The selfie taken by Mr Khalife on the day he says he collected the "dead drop" of cash from a park in London

In an exchange about his upbringing, Mr Khalife told jurors that he felt a "level of shame" about his poor background, adding that his family lived in a "relatively wealthy area".

When asked what his family thought about the Iranian regime, he told the court they were "against" it. He added his Iranian mother "detests" it "and probably the country as well".

He said that after he was caught shoplifting at 15-years-old, his mother took him to Iran for four weeks as "she wanted to show us how people lived".

"I hated it. I thought it was a horrible place," he told jurors. "The weather, the government, everything."

At the age of 16, Mr Khalife joined the Army as "he wanted to get away from home", he said.

While undertaking his initial training in Harrogate, Mr Khalife said that he was told by an officer that he would not be able to work in intelligence roles in the British army due to his heritage - and that this made him determined to show them that policy was wrong.

"I actually thought my background could be utilised to further our national security interests," he told the jury.

"I was still loyal to my country. I still loved my country. But something was wrong, fundamentally. It was flawed."

Earlier in the trial, jurors saw CCTV footage of Mr Khalife in a number of places while allegedly on the run from prison.

Prosecutors said he also sent messages on Telegram to an account linked to Iranian intelligence, including a message that read "I wait".

Mr Khalife was arrested on 9 September 2023 on a canal towpath in Northolt, west London.

Mr Khalife denies escaping from prison and also faces charges under the Official Secrets Act and Terrorism Act including gathering information useful for Iran, collecting names of special forces soldiers useful to terrorists and perpetrating a bomb hoax at his barracks in Stafford.

He denies all charges against him. His evidence, and the trial, continues.