being drunk in the street. A further offence of using an out-of-date railway season ticket followed, and although Bettaney had failed to declare it, as he was required to do, he knew it would be disclosed during his next routine security screening, which would inevitably lead to his dismissal. The management of Bettaney while working for MI5 was examined by the Security Commission, who concluded that "[t]he Commission make a number of serious criticisms of the errors by the Security Service in relation to the management of Bettaney's career..." Aftermath Bettaney was sentenced to 23 years in prison, and was released on licence in 1998. While in prison he had learned the Russian language via broadcasts from Radio Moscow. Bettaney set up home with a pro-socialist woman who had written to him and visited him while in prison. His never-extinct Roman Catholic faith (which he retained, alongside a Marxist tendency) apparently strengthened in later years. He died on 16 August 2018. References Alumni of Pembroke College, Oxford British people convicted of spying for the Soviet Union British spies for the Soviet Union Double agents MI5 personnel 1950 births 2018 deaths English prisoners and detainees People from Fenton, Staffordshire 1984 in politics