Shayler home to face the music

David Shayler was this morning arrested, insisting he was right to leak information about British intelligence. Police confronted the unrepentant Shayler as he stepped off a ferry at Dover after making a high-profile crossing from the French port of Calais accompanied by reporters, TV crews and his girlfriend, Annie Machon. He was expected to be questioned at a London police station, then released on bail.

David Shayler was this morning arrested, insisting he was right to leak information about British intelligence. Police confronted the unrepentant Shayler as he stepped off a ferry at Dover after making a high-profile crossing from the French port of Calais accompanied by reporters, TV crews and his girlfriend, Annie Machon. He was expected to be questioned at a London police station, then released on bail.

"He feels that he needs to come back and vindicate himself," an emotional Machon told reporters after saying goodbye to Shayler. She said it was "scandalous" that he should be arrested, because he had committed no crime.

News reports said Shayler, 34, likely will face two charges of leaking information to the press in breach of the Official Secrets Act, which could earn him a jail sentence of up to four years.

Before leaving Calais, Shayler said he does not believe he will be tried for his allegations, including his claim that two officers from Britain's external intelligence service MI6 were involved in a plot to assassinate Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi - a claim the government denies.

"The government has always misled and lied to the British people in my case, and I will be seeking disclosure of documents to prove that in any trial," Shayler said in a BBS radio interview. "In those circumstances, I think the government will drop the prosecution."

Awaiting his arrival in Dover, Shayler's mother Anne, said she was "quite emotional about the whole thing at the moment, just having him back in the country with his family."

"I'm very proud of him. My first reaction was -- someone had to do this but why does it have to be my son?" she added.

Shayler, who worked for MI5 from 1994 until 1997, fled to France after selling stories to a British newspaper. The 34-year-old former agent spent four months in Paris' La Sante prison in 1998 before French authorities refused to extradite him to Britain for trial under the Official Secrets Act.

In a separate civil suit filed last December by the British government, Shayler is accused of breach of copyright and breach of contract for releasing secret documents.

At a news conference in Calais on Sunday when he repeated his allegations of a British intelligence plot to kill Gadhafi, Shayler said his decision to return home "should send a very strong signal to people that I have nothing to fear. I have done nothing wrong."

He hopes to use European human rights laws to challenge any charges against him.