The National, a pro-independence newspaper based in Glasgow, misidentified an individual who was today charged with spying on behalf of the Chinese government as Professor Chris Berry of King’s College London (KCL).
This morning, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) announced that “Christopher Berry, 32, and Christopher Cash, 29, will be charged with providing prejudicial information to a foreign state, China, and will appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Friday, 26 April.”
Christopher Berry was then referred to by The National as “a professor at King’s College London”. Although there is a Professor Chris Berry who teaches Film Studies at KCL and specialises in China, his PhD was published in 1999. Therefore, to align with the CPS description, he would have had to earn his doctorate at the age of 7.
The National corrected the article shortly after Roar contacted the newsroom.
Shashank Joshi, Visiting Senior Research Fellow at KCL and Defence Editor at The Economist, also posted a message about Professor Berry on X (formerly Twitter). However, his post was deleted shortly afterwards and replaced by an apology message, which was itself subsequently deleted.
Christopher Berry (32), who has no apparent connection to KCL, is accused of having “obtained, collected, recorded, published, or communicated to any other person articles, notes, documents or information, which were calculated to be, might be, or were intended to be, directly or indirectly, useful to an enemy. Contrary to section 1(1)(c) of the Official Secrets Act 1911.”
In the same statement, the CPS also announced espionage charges against Christopher Cash (29), who The Telegraph are reporting is a parliamentary researcher.
Roar has approached The National for a statement.
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