OBITUARY: Having spent 35 years following the trail of George Blake s treachery, interviewing friends, family, colleagues and victims, I understand the scale of his betrayal. And having met him in Moscow in the late 1980s, it amazes me to this day how anyone could have accepted Blake as a legitimate MI6 officer. Born George Behar in Holland, Blake is probably best known as the spy who received one of the longest jail sentences handed out by a British criminal court, a total of 42 years. He is equally notorious for having served less than six years before escaping to the Soviet Union on October 22 1966. But in the intelligence community, he is remembered as the first MI6 officer to be convicted of betraying his country.