A KITCHEN DESIGNER AND HIS BLONDE WIFE, LIVING QUI

A KITCHEN DESIGNER AND HIS BLONDE WIFE, LIVING QUIETLY IN A

SUBURBAN HOUSE NEAR HEATHROW AIRPORT, WERE ‘SECRET AGENTS AND

IN THIS COUNTRY TO SPY FOR EAST GERMANY’, AN OLD BAILEY JURY HEARD

ON MONDAY.

WHEN POLICE BURST INTO THE HOUSE IN WAYE AVENUE, CRANFORD,

MIDDLESEX, LAST AUGUST THEY FOUND ESPIONAGE EQUIPMENT IN A GARDEN

SHED AND AN ‘ESCAPE KIT’ OF FORGED DOCUMENTS IN THE SECRET

COMPARTMENT OF A HOLDALL, SAID MR ALLAN GREEN, PROSECUTING.

BOTH OF THEM GAVE COVER STORIES WHICH WERE A ‘COMPLETE PACK

OF LIES,’ CONTINUED COUNSEL.

AND WHEN THEIR STORIES DID NOT CHECK

OUT THE COUPLE CHANGED THEIR EVIDENCE AND THEN REFUSED TO ANSWER

FURTHER QUESTIONS.

THEY CALLED THEMSELVES REINHARD AND SONJA SCHULZE.

BUT EVEN TODAY IT IS NOT KNOWN WHETHER THOSE ARE THEIR TRUE NAMES OR

JUST ANOTHER OF THEIR MANY LIES, SAID MR GREEN.

BLACKBEARDED SCHULZE, 32, AND HIS 35 YEAR OLD WIFE BOTH

DENY DOING ACTS PREPARATORY TO COMMITTING AN OFFENCE UNDER THE

OFFICIAL SECRETS ACT, 1911, BETWEEN JANUARY 1, 1980 AND AUGUST 24,

1985, ‘FOR A PURPOSE PREJUDICIAL TO THE SAFETY OR INTEREST OF THE

STATE’.

THOSE ACTS WERE ALLEGED TO BE ‘PREPARATORY TO COMMUNICATING

TO ANOTHER PERSON INFORMATION WHICH WAS CALCULATED TO BE OR MIGHT

HAVE BEEN OR WAS INTENED TO BE DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY USEFUL TO AN

ENEMY.

‘

THEY ARE ALLEGED TO HAVE RECEIVED AND RECORDED SECRET

RADIO TRANSMISSIONS AND TO HAVE HAD IN THEIR POSSESSION FALSE

IDENTITY DOCUMENTS AND A QUANTITY OF MAPS.

REINHARDT SCHULTZ ALSO PLEADED NOT GUILTY TO MAKING A FALSE

STATEMENT TO GET A BRITISH PASSPORT AND HIS WIFE DENIED POSSESSING AN

‘IRREGULAR’ AUSTRIAN PASSPORT FOR A PUPOSE PREJUDICIAL TO THE SAFETY

OR INTEREST OF THE STATE,

MR GREEN SAID THAT PUT SIMPLY THE CASE FOR THE CROWN WAS

THAT THE TWO OF THEM CAME TO LIVE IN BRITAIN AS SECRET AGENTS OR

SPIES FOR EAST GERMANY.

THE MAN HAD BEEN LIVING HERE SINCE ABOUT

1980 AND THE WOMAN SINCE THE BEGINNING OF 1983.

BOTH WERE USING FALSE NAMES IN BRITAIN.

HE WAS CALLED

BRYAN STRUNZE AND SHE ILONA STRUNZE.

USING THOSE NAMES THEY

MARRIED AT HOUNSLOW REGISTER OFFICE IN OCTOBER, 1984, AND SOON

AFTERWARDS MOVED TO THE HOUSE IN CRANFORD.

HE WORKED AS A KITCHEN DESIGNER AND SHE AS A TRANSLATOR OF

TECHNICAL DOCUMENTS.

WHEN POLICE SEARCHED THEIR HOME THEY FOUND THE HOLDALL WITH

THE SECRET COMPARTMENT IN A BOX-ROOM.

MR GREEN SAID THE ESCAPE KIT

CONTAINED TWO ENVELOPES.

IN ONE WAS A FORGED BRITISH PASSPORT

WITH REINHARDT SCHULZE’S PHOTOGRAPH IN IT BUT IN THE FALSE NAME OF

PHILIP BEATTIE, SOME ENGLISH MONEY AND A BLANK WEDDING RECEPTION

PLACE CARD.

IN THE SECOND ENVELOPE WAS A FORGED WEST GERMAN IDENTITY

CARD WITH THE WOMAN’S PHOTOGRAPH IN IT AND IN THE NAME OF CORNELIA

HILDEGARD FISCHER.

IT ALSO CONTAINED ENGLISH BANKNOTES AND A

BLANK WEDDING RECEPTION PLACE CARD.

IN THE GARDEN SHED DETECTIVES EXAMINED AN AIR FRESHENER.

CONCEALED INSIDE IT WERE THREE ITEMS OF ‘SPIES EQUIPMENT’, CONTINUED

MR GREEN.

THESE INCLUDED A SUBSTITUTION BOX, A BREVITY CODE AND A

ONE-TIME PAD.

USED TOGETHER THEY COULD ENCODE OR DECODE SECRET

GERMAN LANGUAGE MESSAGES.

‘IN THE DEFENDANTS’ HOUSE WERE FURTHER EXHIBITS WHICH

INDICATED THAT THEY HAD BEEN RECEIVING MESSAGES IN MORSE CODE OVER

THE RADIO FROM EAST GERMANY,’ HE SAID

BOTH OF THEM HAD MUCH MORE MONEY THAN THEIR HISTORIES OF

EMPLOYMENT SUGGESTED AND IN SOME CASES BIG SUMS HAD BEEN CREDITED TO

THEIR BANK ACCOUNTS AFTER THEY HAD RETURNED FROM TRIPS ABROAD.

MORE LATER

CENTRAL NEWS, 33 GOODGE ST, LONDON, W1

OLD BAILEY JUNE 30 1986

QUERIES: 236 0116

ADD SPIES.