suffering from a type of dementia. hello and welcome if you re watching in the uk or around the world. the prime minister rishi sunak is holding talks with northern ireland s political leaders in belfast today with hopes that a deal between the uk and the eu on northern ireland s brexit arrangement could be reached as early as next week. the current trading arrangement know as the northern ireland protocol was negotiated during brexit talks. it was put in place to deal with the fact that northern ireland is in the uk and the republic of ireland is in the eu. some goods passing from england, scotland and wales into northern ireland are getting checked when they cross the irish sea, as the current deal prevents checkpoints on the island of ireland. unionist parties argue that this places an effective border across the irish sea which undermines northern ireland s place within the uk. the largest unionist party, the dup, is currently refusing to take part in the country s po
to russia, and detrimental the united kingdom. of use to russia. the sentence on each of those counts will reflect your overall culpability for this aspect of your behaviour. on all of the accounts, save count one, i adopt the starting point for sentence after trial of nine years. count one, which concerns the supplying documents to the russian authorities represents a further and separate if related course of conduct which ought properly to attract a consecutive sentence. the sentencing authorities made clear that consecutive sentence in cases such as this are merited where a single course of conduct is particularly protracted or where the behaviour of a defendant is rightly regarded to be as more than one
of course always have in mind the statutory aims of sentencing, of which in myjudgment punishment is the most important in any case such as this. i assess your culpability as this. i assess your culpability as high. you were a security guard at the embassy. it is not a senior position, but it is one which imposed on you a high level of trust and responsibility. it was yourjob to ensure the embassy was secure, and his staff say. you had access to restricted areas of the building, at times when nobody else was likely to be there. when you did what you doubt, it was the most obvious breach of the trust placed in you. in addition, i am sure that you committed these crimes intending to
mrjustice hole was saying there was smith had gathered material with a view to harming british interests in breach of the trust of his role as a security guard. he said it is self evident this case demands an immediate prison sentence. he said, i assess the probability is high, it was yourjob to insecure the embassy was yourjob to insecure the embassy was secure and the staff are safe. the judges say it was impossible to assess the actual harm smith had cause without knowing the actual information he had passed on to russia. wejust information he had passed on to russia. we just had the sentencing at the old bailey, mrjustice wall, sentencing david smith to 13 years and two months. we werejust sentencing david smith to 13 years and two months. we were just hearing their breaking news of former security guard at berlin who passed on information to russia for money
this. we appreciate you talking to us, thank you very much. - a former security guard at the uk s berlin embassy that pleaded guilty to spying for moscow faces up up to ia yea rs years in prison when he is sentenced today. david ballantyne smith admitted to passing sensitive material to the russian embassy in germany and was then caught in a sting operation. we can cross to that sentencing at the old bailey now. you gave evidence at that hearing, i rejected your basis of plea, and determined that you should be sentenced in line with the prosecution case. i have already given a fulljudgment outlining my reasons for reaching that conclusion. i will not repeat those reasons now, but will briefly set out the facts of the offences as i