John Alexander Symonds

Who is John Alexander Symonds?

John Alexander Symonds is a British former Metropolitan police officer and KGB agent. He was born in the Soke of Peterborough, and was Commissioned in the Royal Artillery from 1953-56. He joined the Metropolitan Police in 1956, becoming a Detective Sergeant at New Scotland Yard, until 1972 when he fled the UK while facing charges of corruption.

Between 1972-80 he was a KGB agent employed as a "Romeo spy" with the codename SKOT. The role he was allocated by his Soviet masters was the seduction of women working in Western embassies with the aim of obtaining secrets.

In the 1980s Symonds had revealed himself as a spy to the police and security services, and appeared on the front page of the Daily Express and in the News on Sunday but was dismissed as "a fantasist". It was only with the defection of Major Vasili Mitrokhin in 1992, and the subsequent publication of the Mitrokhin Archive in 1999, where Symonds was named as a spy for the Soviet Union, that his claim gained credence.

Symonds was never prosecuted for any offence related to espionage or spying, and was never interviewed by MI5 or the Secret Intelligence Service.