John Symonds was a London Metropolitan Police detective sergeant who worked for the KGB from 1972 to 1980. Facing bribery charges arising from a police corruption investigation, he fled Britain in 1972. According to KGB files copied by Vasili Mitrokhin, he offered his services to the Soviets that year, and the KGB trained him as a “Romeo” agent, tasked with seducing women employed at Western embassies in order to obtain classified information.

Symonds later returned to Britain and served a prison sentence on the corruption charges. His claims to MI5 about his KGB work were not taken seriously at the time. His case became public in September 1999 with the publication of the Mitrokhin archive, which also exposed the long-serving atomic spy Melita Norwood; neither was prosecuted for espionage. Symonds later wrote an account of his career, Romeo Spy.

Sources

• Andrew, Christopher, and Vasili Mitrokhin. The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB. Basic Books, 1999.
• Jamestown Foundation. “KGB Spy Revelations Rock Britain.” 1999.
• Lobster. Review of John Symonds, Romeo Spy. Issue 63, 2012.

Summary entry. A fuller, document-based profile is in preparation.