...Khalife's own barrister, Gul Nawaz Hussain KC, said he was hapless and sometimes bordering on the slapstick – more Scooby-Doo than 007. But detectives built up evidence of a young man who was able to mount the prison escape that sparked a huge manhunt last year, a reflection of his complexity as both a trivial figure and a concerning entity in espionage activities.
It is difficult to disentangle Khalife's ego, the fantasy he created, the money he earned, and his inability to understand the damage he was causing... Commander Dominic Murphy of Scotland Yard noted the mixed motivations and contradictions present in Khalife's actions, indicating both a desire for thrill and unwittingly harmful impacts.
For his part, Khalife told the jury he had sought to cultivate his Iranian intelligence contacts to help British security services. He claimed he mainly fed his handlers either fake information, or real documents that were already in the public domain.
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