A former soldier accused of escaping from Wandsworth Prison has told a jury he offered to spy for Iran to promote British national security interests, insisting: “I am a patriot and I love my country”.

Daniel Khalifaaged 23, is alleged to have collected and passed on secrets to the hostile state shortly after taking up his post with the Royal Signals, based at Beacons Barracks, Staffordshire.

He stirred a nationwide manhunt After he used a sling made from knotted bed sheets to cling to the underside of a food delivery truck to get out of prison on the morning of September 6 last year, Woolwich Crown Court heard.

Giving evidence for the first time at his trial, Khalife, wearing a white shirt and chinos, told jurors that he joined the army at the age of 16 because he “wanted to be a real soldier, to go to war”.

“I am a patriot and I love my country,” he said.

Khalife, whose mother is from Iran and father from Lebanon, said he wanted to work in intelligence but was left “devastated” after his troop commander told him he would not pass the inspection because of his family.

“I didn’t really want to quit,” he said. “There is a solution for every problem.”

“I wanted to be in a position to help my country. I wanted to use my experience to advance our national security interests.”

He said he hatched a plan to start “spying” when he was still just 17, contacting a sanctioned Iranian through Facebook before being put in touch with intelligence officers.

Khalife, who is well-spoken, at one point describing himself as a “dweller overkill”, told jurors he launched an “operation” to “contact a foreign enemy” and “provide them with fictitious information to construct a report”.

He said he wanted “to be able to contact our own intelligence services to spread disinformation to further our national security interests” and “to expose Iranian intelligence officers working in the UK”.

“There was no nefarious intent and I had no intent to harm our national security,” he added.

Khalife said the Iranians wanted to know about agents working for British intelligence in Iran, so he created a fake document to suggest he had access to such information.

“I remember they were extremely pleased with this document,” he said.

Khalife said he had been told he had been “granted at the highest levels a sum of money” for “travel” to Iran, with “a more substantial sum” to be delivered on arrival.

The court heard he lifted £1,500 in a bag of dog poo from under a bin in Mill Hill Park, north London, in August 2019.

The court previously heard that Khalife later contacted British security services saying he wanted to be a “double agent”, but MI5 eventually reported him to the police.

Born in Marylebone, central London, Khalife went to school in Teddington, south-west London, where he said he was quite popular but not the most academic person.

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He said his mother took him to Iran for four weeks when he was 15 after he was caught shoplifting with a group of friends after realizing strong magnets could be used to remove the tags security in a physics lesson.

“Every day I was in that country, I wanted to go back. I hated it. I thought it was a horrible place – the weather, the police, everything. It’s an incredibly corrupt country,” he said.

“Against the regime in Iran”

“To this day, I don’t think I’ve met a single person living outside of Iran who isn’t hostile to the government.

“My mother hates the regime, probably the country, and that goes for the whole family. She is not religious in any way. No one in my family is.

“My family and I are against the regime in Iran.”

Khalife, from Kingston, south-west London, was arrested in Northolt’s Grand Union Canal Alley three days after he allegedly escaped from Wandsworth Prison.

He denies the charge of committing an act prejudicial to the security or interests of the state under the Official Secrets Act between May 1, 2019 and January 6, 2022.

He also pleaded not guilty to a charge under the Terrorism Act of obtaining information about armed forces personnel on August 2, 2021, carrying out a bomb hoax by January 2, 2023 and escaping from prison on September 6 last year.

The process continues.