A British Royal Navy submariner who pleaded guilty to meeting two men he believed were Russian spies to pass on secret codes and details of submarine operations will be sentenced on Wednesday.
Petty officer Edward Devenney, 30, from Northern Ireland, faces up to 14 years in jail when he is sentenced at London’s Old Bailey after admitting to amassing information in breach of the Official Secrets Act.
The court heard last month how Devenney contacted a foreign embassy to try to pass the materials to Russia.
The two people he eventually met with were British secret agents.
Devenney admitted one charge of gathering “crypto material”, or programmes used to encrypt secret information, and details of the operations of several British nuclear submarines for a purpose prejudicial to the safety of the state between November 18, 2011 and March 7.
He also admitted a charge of misconduct in a public office.
Britain and Russia have had frosty relations for years, particularly over the poisoning with radioactive polonium in London of Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko later in 2006.
Submariner faces sentencing over Secrets Act breach
