US EditionBritish prosecutors say they did 'everything possible' to bring China spy trial to court
Prosecutors dropped charges after failing to prove China was a national security threat during alleged offences, citing a 2024 legal precedent raising evidential requirements.
- On Tuesday, Director of Public Prosecutions Stephen Parkinson said charges against Christopher Cash and Christopher Berry were dropped last month after evidence no longer met the evidential test and the government declined to label Beijing an enemy.
- A legal ruling earlier this year established that an enemy under the Official Secrets Act must represent a threat at the time, raising the evidential threshold after April 2024 charges authorised.
- The two accused were identified as Christopher Cash, 30, and Christopher Berry, 33, arrested in March 2023 and charged under the Official Secrets Act for alleged offences from December 2021–February 2023.
- The collapse has prompted criticism from ministers and MPs, while Downing Street rejected claims of withholding evidence and Sir Keir Starmer said, `You have to prosecute people on the basis on what was the state of affairs at the time of the offence`.
- Since the general election last year, the Labour government has signalled it wants to recalibrate ties with China and is conducting a cross-Whitehall review, while Foreign Secretary David Lammy and Jonathan Powell engaged Beijing this year.
11 Articles
11 Articles
UK Government Denies It’s to Blame for Collapse of China Spies Trial
The UK government said on Oct. 6 that it was not to blame for the collapse of a trial of two men accused of spying for China, saying the case fell apart because China had not been defined as “an enemy” in language used by the previous government. Conservative Party lawmakers, in government from 2010 until July 2024, accused Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government of deliberately collapsing the trial of Christopher Cash, 30, and Christopher Berr…
Spying trial collapsed after government refused to brand China a threa
A Chinese spying trial collapsed last month after the UK government would not label Beijing a national security threat, a top prosecutor has said. Christopher Berry, 33, and former parliamentary researcher Christopher Cash, 30, were accused of espionage for China. But the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) announced on 15 September that the charges would be dropped, sparking criticism from Downing Street and MPs. Berry, of Witney, Oxfordshire, and …
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