ABSTRACT
Goerge Blake's serious espionage crimes over nine and a half years from 1951 led to the lengthy prison sentence of forty-two years being imposed on him by the court following his trial and conviction at the Central Criminal Court in May 1961. However, in a wartime case of espionage brought in 1915 under the then Defence of the Realm Regulations, the penalty for the crime committed by 'M' was death. The recent revival of the Blake spy drama highlights a number of issues analysed in this chapter, in respect of the criminal law, including the role of the Attorney-General and the prosecution policy adopted in general, as well as in Official Secrets cases. In Canada and other countries in the 1940s a spy ring was discovered and in the United States more recently several members of the Walker family spy ring were convicted of crimes of espionage.
