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Geoffrey Arthur Prime (born 21 February 1938) is a British former spy, who disclosed information to the Soviet Union while working for the Royal Air Force and later for Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), a British intelligence agency, responsible for signals intelligence, during the 1960s and 1970s. Prime was convicted in the early 1980s of charges of espionage and child sexual abuse, and released from prison in the 2000s. ==Life== Prime grew up in Staffordshire, and had a difficult childhood. After attending St. Joseph's College, Stoke-on-Trent, and achieving good O-levels in languages, he became a junior wages clerk at a factory. In 1956 he was selected for National Service in the Royal Air Force. Due to colour blindness he became a storeman in the RAF, but his linguistic abilities were recognised and he was sent to learn the Russian language at the Joint Services School for Linguists (JSSL) in Crail, Scotland. Prime excelled at Russian and was appointed an acting sergeant. He was enrolled on an advanced Russian course at the University of London, but failed the course after three months, and his rank was taken away from him. He resumed his duties as a storeman. Posted to Kenya, Prime was promoted to corporal, and learnt the Swahili language in his spare time. Prime was shocked by the poverty in Kenya and the racism of European settlers in the country, and what he perceived was the exploitation of Kenya by the British colonial authorities. In Kenya Prime began to listen to Communist radio broadcasts and started reading the ''Soviet Weekly'' magazine. Returning to Britain in 1962 he reapplied for language training, spending a year at the JSSL in Tangmere, Sussex, and was posted to the signals intelligence unit at RAF Gatow in Berlin, Germany. In Berlin Prime worked as a wireless operator, monitoring Russian voice transmissions. He was reappointed a sergeant in May 1968. Prime was positively vetted in 1966, and approved for security clearance in September 1968. His positive vetting was subsequently reviewed in 1973, 1974 and 1976, being passed on each occasion.〔(【引用サイトリンク】work=Hansard )〕 Prime had consulted a psychiatrist in November 1972, who subsequently cast doubt on Prime's mental stability. Though required to do so by regulations, Prime never reported this visit, and had he done so, it may have resulted in his security clearance being withdrawn.〔 Prime returned to Britain to work for the British intelligence agency Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), and became a translator with the London Processing Group (LPG) at St. Dunstan's Hill in the City of London. The LPG processed and translated material obtained by telephone intercepts and bugging by the British secret agencies. Prime started at the LPG in late 1968, he was part of a new group of entrants to LPG, recruited to replace older employees who joined during the Second World War. The older employees at the LPG had been content to work in a "void", not knowing the context or importance of the intelligence they were processing, but younger employees were dissatisfied with this approach, and found the work tiring and difficult. As a result, younger employees were deliberately told more than they needed to know about their work. In the mid-1970s, LPG moved to Cheltenham, the home of GCHQ, with Prime moving there in March 1976. Prime was part of the J30 section of J Division 'Special Sigint' at GCHQ, that dealt with Soviet intelligence. Prime was one of three officers at J Division that had access to a vault at J Division, from which he was able to take documents home to photograph, and photocopy documents at will. In June 1976 Prime was promoted to Higher Intelligence Specialist in J Division, and moved to lead a team of transcribers in J25, another part of the division. In November 1976 Prime was moved to another section that focused on the intelligence analysis of transcribed material, and also appointed Personal Security Supervisor for his section. Prime had to deliver lectures in his new role, which he disliked, and failed to appear for a lecture on 22 September 1977, resigning shortly afterwards. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Geoffrey Prime」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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