Ex-MI6 spy Tomlinson disappears after French court hearing

I wrote nearly a month ago about how ex-MI6 officer Richard Tomlinson was defying the UK government by posting a novel that it claims broke the Official Secrets Act on his blog.

I did a piece for The Register, and it was picked up by Slashdot, and it seems that led to lots of visitors to Mr Tomlinson’s blog. I hope it wasn’t this sudden attention that encouraged Tomlinson to do something rather stupid that may have seen him arrested by the French police.

Tomlinson was raided months ago by the French police alongside British special branch and had all his computers and other possessions taken away. The reason given was that special branch believed he was behind the publication of a list of MI6 officers on the Net. Tomlinson vehemently denies that, and I tend to believe him, but the officers have so far refused to hand back his possessions, causing Tomlinson to use his blog to mount a campaign against them.

Eventually special branch said it was the novel – only eight chapters of which he had completed – that broke the Official Secrets Act and so they were keeping his computers. So Tomlinson posted the novel. When this had no discernible impact, he then foolishly threatened on his blog to actually start publishing the names of MI6 officers that he knew.

That was on Friday. On Tuesday evening, he received a letter from the local bailiff’s office ordering him to attend court the next morning at 11am. The order stated that the request came from the UK’s Attorney General.

Tomlinson posted the letter. But since then, he has not appeared on his blog and I have as yet been unable to find a way of contacting him. Since it is now Thursday evening, there is a high likelihood that Tomlinson has been arrested. Quite possibly for breaking the Official Secrets Act – and that means another jail sentence.

I have put in a call to the Attorney General’s office, but it is too late to call France at the moment so I will leave it til tomorrow and hope my French is still up to the task.

I certainly feel some sympathy for Tomlinson since he is genuinely aggrieved that he was kicked out of MI6 – and claims not to know why. But, frankly, threatening to name MI6 officers on his blog was only ever going to cause the authorities to step in. And as they have made clear, they are more than capable of working with the French authorities on this.

We shall have to wait and see what happens.