London: A Royal Navy petty officer has been sentenced to eight years in prisons for passing nuclear submarine secrets to British intelligence agents impersonating Russian spies.

Petty Officer Edward Devenney, who was sentenced today, was arrested after the undercover operation organized by Britain`s domestic security agency, MI5. He was charged with communicating information that could be directly or indirectly useful to the enemy in breach of the Official Secrets Act. Devenney, 30, from Northern Ireland, pleaded guilty to gathering details of programs used to encrypt secret information. He also admitted misconduct in a public office in relation to a meeting with two people he thought were from the Russian secret service. He acknowledged discussing the movement of British nuclear submarines with the pair, who were in fact members of the British secret service.
PTI