THE TEDDINGTON SCHOOLBOY TURNED SOLDIER SPY
A former classmate of the convicted soldier spy Daniel Khalife today offered a fascinating insight into his time at Teddington School.
The former pupil, who asked not to be named, told Teddington Town: “He was a very intelligent boy, especially in maths and he was in the top sets for everything but I wouldn’t say he was a popular boy.
“The only thing that made him stand out was that he was so tall for his age and compared to the rest of us. He was brilliant at basketball and he played football. He was more like a man for his age. He excelled at sports.
“In some ways he didn’t really fit in but he had a solid group of friends and every lunchtime he was out on the astra turf playing football with the popular boys who always involved him.
“He tended to hang around with quieter geeky boys but he was a friend to everyone – he was always laughing.
“I can remember thinking he was very clever but I think he dumbed himself down sometimes to fit in with the ‘cool kids.’
Khalife, 23 was convicted of spying for Iran and will be sentenced next month.
His mother, Farnaz Khalife, 48, said in an interview with The Times: “He doesn’t think about what he is going to do, he gets things in his brain.”
Ms Khalife took her son to Iran twice during his youth, once when he was just five and a second time when he was 13.
“Danny doesn’t know Iran, he loves this country,” one family member told The Times.
Ms Khalife said her son was obsessed with video games in his youth, especially Grand Theft Auto, spending “hours and hours” on it.
After Khalife left home to join the armed forces, his sister found a note in his room.
“The things he said he wanted to do were horrible — destroying people with acid, cutting them,” Ms Khalife said.
“I called him and he laughed and said, ‘Don’t take it seriously, it was my game, Grand Theft Auto. I was writing what I see in the game.’
“I burned it. I was worried about what his gaming on Xbox was teaching him. I was scared he might hurt himself or hurt somebody else. I blame myself, I didn’t think it would come to this.”
Before dropping out of school to join the army, Khalife also became enamoured with the idea of being a bodybuilder.
“He ordered 50kg weights and used to use them all the time,” Ms Khalife said.
“I said you have to train your body to lift that much. He watched lots of programmes about the SAS and he always wanted to look like that, to look like a bodybuilder.”
After his arrest for spying, Khalife told his mother: “I’ve done something bad.”
He confessed to her that he was giving information to Iran in an effort to become a spy for the UK.
“It sounds so crazy,” his mother told The Times: “He said he wanted to help the UK. He called MI5 to give them information on the Iranian people but they ignored him. Then they got suspicious and came and arrested him.”
He told her: “I have this thing in my brain telling me to do things.”