Trial of GCHQ employee accused of taking top secret data home to be heard partly in private

Mrs Justice McGowan confirmed Arshad's trial would take place next 31 March 2025 Credit: PA Images

A former GCHQ employee accused of damaging national security by taking top secret data home will be tried partly in secret, a senior judge has ruled.

Hasaan Arshad, 25, from Rochdale, Greater Manchester, is charged with an offence under the Computer Misuse Act after an investigation led by the Metropolitan Police Counter Terrorism Command.

Mrs Justice McGowan confirmed his trial would take place next 31 March 2025 at the Old Bailey in London.

The senior judge also ruled that some witnesses would give evidence anonymously and parts of the trial would be heard behind closed doors, in the absence of the press and public, on Wednesday 18 December.

Arshad, who is on bail, has denied wrongdoing and was not required to attend the hearing.

The charge relates to the defendant’s alleged activities before going home on 24 August 2022.

It is claimed he took his work mobile phone into a top-secret area and connected the device to a top-secret work station.

Arshad, who is on bail, has denied wrongdoing. Credit: PA images

He is accused of transferring sensitive data from a secure, top-secret computer to the phone before taking it home.

Arshad allegedly then transferred the data from the phone to a hard drive connected to his personal home computer.

The defendant was arrested and his home was searched on 22 September 2022.

He was charged under Section 3ZA of the Computer Misuse Act 1990, relating to “unauthorised acts causing, or creating risk of, serious damage”.

The charge states: “Between August 23 2022 and September 23 2022 (he) did an unauthorised act in relation to a computer and at the time of doing the act knew that it was unauthorised; and the act caused, or created a significant risk of a material kind, this being damage to the national security of a country; and he intended by doing the act to cause serious damage of a material kind or was reckless as to whether such damage was caused.”

“Top secret” is the classification for the Government’s most sensitive information, where compromise might cause widespread loss of life or threaten the security or economic wellbeing of the country or friendly nations, according to Ministry of Justice security guidance.