A serving member of the Royal Navy has been charged with obtaining protected information for the benefit of a foreign power that British authorities have declined to name.
Teddy Young, 24, was arrested at his home in Bedfordshire, north of London, on October 6 and was due before Westminster Magistrates’ Court in the capital on October 8. He had been held in custody since his arrest.
The Metropolitan Police said Young faced two counts under the National Security Act 2023. The first alleges that between November 26, 2024 and May 21, 2025 he engaged in conduct preparatory to the disclosure of protected information.
The second alleges that over the same period he obtained, copied, recorded or retained protected information intending to benefit a foreign power, knowing or having reason to know that doing so was prejudicial to British safety or interests.
Commander Helen Flanagan, head of Counter Terrorism Policing London, which ran the investigation, said: “These are very serious charges against a serving member of the armed forces.”
She said detectives had worked closely with the Ministry of Defence as the inquiry progressed so that any risk attached to the case could be contained.
Young was first arrested on May 21, 2025 and released on bail while the investigation continued. He was detained a second time this week, shortly before the charges were authorised.
Police said the case had no connection with the suspected plot near RAF Fairford, the Gloucestershire airbase where the United States has pulled out its bombers and seven men have been arrested since September 27. Six of them are on bail and none has been charged.
The Royal Navy confirmed that one of its personnel had been charged and said it would not comment further while legal proceedings were under way.
The charges come as European governments report a rising tempo of state-linked espionage on the continent. German prosecutors this week detained a former head of the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), the federal intelligence service, over an alleged Azerbaijani connection, and Belgian investigators have been examining a Brussels police officer suspected of working for China and Russia.
Britain left the European Union in 2020 though it remains a NATO ally and an intelligence partner of several member states. British officials have repeatedly warned that Iran and Russia use proxies to act on British soil.
The National Security Act 2023 replaced espionage law dating from 1911 and created offences covering assistance to foreign intelligence services and preparatory conduct of the kind alleged against Young. He has not entered a plea.
