Constable ‘worked as a spy’

A QUEENSLAND policeman has revealed he’s a former secret agent who was involved in what was New Zealand’s biggest spy scandal.

Constable Kit Bennetts has broken his cover to write a book about the case of respected New Zealand public servant William Sutch.

Dr Sutch was accused by New Zealand’s Security Intelligence Service of handing over government secrets to the Soviet KGB during the Cold War.

He was acquitted of spying in 1975 and died later that year, but debate over his guilt or innocence continued in New Zealand long after his death.

Constable Bennetts, as a young intelligence service officer in Wellington, observed the first meetings between Dr Sutch and KGB agent Dmitri Razgoveroff.

Despite Dr Sutch’s acquittal, Constable Bennetts asserts in his recently published book, titled Spy, that the long-serving diplomat was a liar who was a career Soviet spy.

“He provided information valuable to the Soviets and almost certainly damaging to New Zealand and its allies,” he said.

Constable Bennetts testified against Dr Sutch.