Two men charged with offences under Official Secrets Act

Two men have been charged with offences under the Official Secrets Act, following an investigation led by the Met's Counter Terrorism Command.

Christopher Berry from Witney in Oxfordshire faces a charge of on dates between 28 December 2021 and 3 February 2023, for a purpose prejudicial to the safety or interests of the State, obtained, collected, recorded, published, or communicated to any other person articles, notes, documents or information, which were calculated to be, might be, or were intended to be, directly or indirectly, useful to an enemy, contrary to section 1(1)(c) of the Official Secrets Act 1911.

Christopher Cash also faces the same charge for the date between from 20 January 2022 to 3 February 2023.

In this case, the foreign state is China.

The two men were previously arrested on 13 March 2023 in connection with the investigation. They were released on bail while the investigation continued and the case file was passed to the CPS for consideration in late 2023. The Attorney General gave consent to charge on 3 April 2024 and then the CPS gave authorisation to charge Berry and Cash with the above offences.

The pair have been bailed to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Friday 26 April 2024.

Commander Dominic Murphy, Head of the Counter Terrorism Command, said: "This has been an extremely complex investigation into what are very serious allegations. We've worked closely with the Crown Prosecution Service as our investigation has progressed and this has led to the two men being charged today.

"We're aware there has been a degree of public and media interest in this case, but we would ask others to refrain from any further comment or speculation, so that the criminal justice process can now run its course."