'But Since That's The Plot Of Every James Bond Film, They Didn't Think It Mattered'

A secret inquiry by MI5's watchdog concluded the security service knew an abusive agent it defended in court was a misogynist who was "obsessed" with violence, the BBC can reveal.

Hard to see why they’d feel they had to care about that… 

The inquiry took place after BBC News originally exposed how MI5 had covered up for the man - a neo-Nazi informant known publicly as agent X. The government took the BBC to court in 2022 in a failed attempt to block our investigation, but it won agent X legal anonymity.

Useful in a spy, but didn’t he already have it? 

Following the BBC story, the office of the investigatory powers commissioner (IPCO) Sir Brian Leveson launched an inquiry, which - like much of IPCO's work - was secret. Details of the inquiry can now be reported for the first time.

• IPCO - which oversees the use of covert investigatory powers, including the UK's intelligence agencies - concluded: "Strong indications" of agent X's interest in violence, including video footage of him threatening his girlfriend with a machete, did not lead to an MI5 review of his suitability of as an agent.

•  IPCO said it "should have done" (sic) agent X was "openly misogynistic" with his MI5 handlers, who knew he was involved with a "pick up artistry" movement that seeks to exploit women for sex, but "none of this attracted much attention" from the handlers MI5 knew agent X was "obsessed" with violence, because he told them, and there were indications he might be a threat to others "arising from his general interest in extreme violence". 
• But IPCO said there was a "lack of sufficient professional curiosity" about him by MI5.

Frankly, if he was a good agent, should it have mattered at all?