David Shayler

David Shayler (born 24 December 1965) is a British former MI5 officer. Shayler was prosecuted under the Official Secrets Act 1989 for passing secret documents to The Mail on Sunday in August 1997 that alleged that MI5 was paranoid about socialists, and that it had previously investigated Labour Party ministers Peter Mandelson, Jack Straw and Harriet Harman.

Shayler was born in Middlesbrough, England; when he was 10 his family left the northeast. He attended John Hampden Grammar School in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire whose head teacher, according to Shayler himself, once described him as "a born rebel who sails close to the wind ... and suffers neither fools nor their arguments gladly". He later attended the University of Dundee starting in 1984 where he was editor of the student newspaper Annasach and was responsible for publishing extracts of the book Spycatcher by another former MI5 officer Peter Wright (banned in Britain at the time). He graduated with a 2:1 degree in English (2nd class honours upper division) in July 1989. After leaving university he worked as a journalist at The Sunday Times newspaper although his employment was terminated six months later.

Shayler joined MI5 in October 1991 after responding to an oblique job advertisement in the 12 May edition of The Observer entitled "Godot isn't coming" a reference to the play Waiting for Godot in which Godot never arrives. The advert asked if applicants had an interest in current affairs, had common sense and an ability to write. Believing the job was media related, Shayler applied.

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