I asked Britain's Two Christophers how they will plead to spying charges
WATCH: Christopher Berry and Christopher Cash faced their first court hearing.
London: When the accusation was first made that Christopher Cash was being investigated for spying for China, he said, through his lawyers that he was ‘completely innocent.’
Outside Westminster Magistrates Court in London on Friday, where 28-year-old Cash and his co-accused Christopher Berry (31), faced their first legal hearing since being charged with breaching the Officials Secrets Act, I asked Cash if he is still planning to plead his innocence.
He did not answer the question or others that I put to him as he left the courthouse alone.
Berry was also mute. However, his legal representative with whom he entered and left the court, told me his client would not be commenting.
Answers may be more forthcoming in May when the pair will face court again.
Christopher Cash and Christopher Berry were not required to enter pleas during their first court hearing.
They were granted bail but with clear instructions from Chief Magistrate Paul Goldspring that they must report to the police each week, reside at their stated addresses, not leave the UK, not talk to each other and tell the police if they use an internet-enabled device.
The Two Christophers each face a single charge of breaching the Official Secrets Act on behalf of China, a country where they both worked as teachers. The details of the specific allegations were not made public during Friday’s brief hearing.
Both stood in the dock together and spoke to confirm their names and addresses and agree to their bail conditions. They did not talk to or look at each other.
They both looked pale and the case appeared to have taken a particular toll upon Cash who looked ashen and visibly shocked throughout the entire proceeding.
Wearing a dark suit, a light-coloured shirt unbuttoned at the top with no tie, he could be seen repeatedly swallowing as he stood with his arms held straight by his side.
Berry appeared more stoic. He wore a tie with a dark suit and briefly clasped his hands behind his back when Goldspring ordered him to stand to hear the conditions of bail, which included an order ‘not to contact co-defender Chris Cash in any way directly or indirectly.’
‘You must notify the police of internet-enabled devices that you possess or intend to use,’ Goldspring told Berry.
When it came to Cash, his terms of bail were similar but included an order not to contact any MPs.
‘You must not enter any part of the parliamentary estate, you must not contact any members of parliament,’ Goldspring told Cash.
‘You must not contact directly or indirectly any other employee at the Houses of Parliament, you must not contact directly or indirectly any staff of parliamentarians.’
The court hearing lasted no more than 15 minutes. The pair left to a throng of cameras and media waiting outside.
Similar scenes will likely await the next time they are due in a courtroom. That will occur on the other side of London at the Old Bailey on May 10 where they were ordered to show up at 9.30 am for a preliminary hearing at the Central Criminal Court.
The case will be closely watched in Westminster where Cash worked as a researcher for Conservative MP Alicia Kearns who chairs the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee.
Kearns says she will not comment on the charges laid against her former aide but on Friday berated the UK’s higher education sector for what she said was its ‘outdated mindset’ concerning the threats posed by foreign interference.
‘For too long academia has pretended it has no role to play in our national security and can operate free from geo-strategic realities - this is an outdated mindset making us vulnerable to hostile states,’ Kearns said in a statement on X.
‘I hope with this very welcome move we can better protect one of our greatest national assets as significant evidence indicates a systematic attempt by the CCP to infiltrate British academia and exfiltrate critical research, capabilities and technologies.
‘To prevent universities providing a back door to hostile states seeking to infiltrate and undermine us, gov[ernmen]t needs to provide handrails so this move is very welcome - one many of us have long called for.’
Kearns’ criticism of the academic sector followed a warning to the sector by Ken McCallum, the head of Britain’s spy agency MI5, that hostile states are actively targeting British universities in order to steal technology that could help them ‘deliver their authoritarian, military and commercial priorities’.
Key university staff could be required to undergo security clearances as part of new government action to try and protect British research from being stolen.
Broadly, the topic of foreign interference has been in the spotlight in Europe this week, following the arrests of German nationals accused of spying for China, as well as the separate arrest of an aide to a German Alternative for Deutschland (AfD) Member of the European Parliament who was accused of also working for China.
The party suspended the staffer whom German prosecutors named only as Jian G.
‘Jian G. is an employee of a Chinese secret service,’ prosecutors said.
‘In January 2024, the accused repeatedly passed on information about negotiations and decisions in the European Parliament to his intelligence service client.
‘He also spied on Chinese opposition members in Germany for the intelligence service.’
Jian Gou had been working, since 2019, for Maximilian Krah who is the AfD’s lead candidate in the upcoming European elections.
Die Zeit reported that Jian had offered himself to the German intelligence agencies a decade ago but was rejected amid fears he was attempting to be a double agent.
Gerold Otten, an AfD member of the Bundestag said the timing of Jian’s arrest appeared political.
‘It stinks in my opinion,’ Otten told Latika Takes.
‘Six weeks before the main campaign starts for the European elections, they arrest this guy?
‘It’s an interesting coincidence.’
But Otten said if Jian was a spy he should be shown the full force of the law.
‘It has to be investigated, we need clean politicians, especially in the AfD,’ he said.
Shoe leather reporting!
The institution I was once CEO of had a joint venture in China with Chinese state owned partners. I had been to a lot of Australian Government sponsored briefings by people like Geoff Raby and Ken Henry on how to do business with and in China. This was all pre the detention of Chen Lei. Everything seemed normal except I was surprised that besides their CEO, the most important person in the organisation was the site's Party Secretary - who I then realised was not only part of an alternate management structure but also "quality" control. The Chinese let us meet privately with the Australian staff based on-site. I sometimes wondered if we were bugged. Given the importance of the party secretary I once asked in these private meetings, how "socialist" a state this was and I got the response from an Australian that it was really "state owned capitalism of a nationalistic" strain. But Raby and Henry had prepared us far better than some UK colleagues. One day I arrived early to find a British Sales Team. My Chinese host said I must come to lunch and, to the Brits dismay, their presentation. The Chinese were letting us know about competition. But afTer five minutes of the UK presentation I knew we were OK. I would not start a public presentation saying our countries had a long history especially in the last century and after a 30 year gap we are back when every Chinese primary school student is taught about the Opium wars and what they call 'the century of humiliation". We kept the contract. But the point is on a personal and business level it is very easy to get too close - thank you Raby, Henry and Co for the advice!