Able Seaman Teddy Young appears at Westminster charged under the National Security Act

Able Seaman Teddy Stanley Greenidge Young, 24, appeared at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Thursday charged under the National Security Act with preparing to disclose protected information and with obtaining or retaining it intending to benefit a foreign power. He is a Royal Navy warfare intelligence rating. The charges cover 26 November 2024 to 21 May 2025.

The Crown Prosecution Service put a written summary before the court. It said that while Young served with high-level security clearance and access to intelligence systems, he accessed and retained sensitive UK defence and intelligence material and engaged in activity consistent with preparing to pass protected information to a foreign power. The BBC reported that the allegations include translating a message into Russian and looking for a web portal that invited people to submit information to Russia.

Young spoke only to confirm his name, date of birth and his address in Clapham, near Bedford. He wore a grey police-issue sweatshirt. He has not entered a plea in any account published from Thursday's hearing. The charges are allegations. The CPS summary is the prosecution case, not a finding.

The two counts are distinct. One is conduct in preparation for disclosing protected information. The other is obtaining, copying, recording or retaining protected information, with the intention that the conduct benefit a foreign power. Preparation and retention can both be charged before any document is shown to have left the building. That is why the portal search and the translated message sit at the centre of the public summary. They are the acts the Crown says show intent, short of a completed handover.

Warfare intelligence is a rating, not an officer rank. An able seaman in that specialism can still hold system access that a civilian contractor would not. The CPS summary leans on that access: high-level clearance, intelligence systems, defence material. It does not, in the text read in court reports, name a recipient, a handler, or a sum of money. The foreign power named in reporting is Russia. The charge sheet's statutory language is "a foreign power."

The date range ends on 21 May 2025. Thursday's appearance is the first public court step, more than 16 months after the period in the charges closes. That gap is common in National Security Act cases, which are investigated before charge. It also means the alleged conduct is not a product of the current Iran war or of this year's arguments over European defence spending. It sits in late 2024 and the first half of 2025.

Westminster Magistrates' Court is the usual first stop for these charges in London. A case of this kind is typically sent to a higher court. Thursday's hearing established identity, the charges, and the CPS summary. The next date will decide where the evidence is heard.

What is public today is a narrow set of facts. A 24-year-old warfare intelligence rating from an address near Bedford stood in a police sweatshirt and confirmed his details. Prosecutors say he kept protected material and prepared to pass it on, including by translating a message into Russian and searching for a Russian submission portal, between November 2024 and May 2025. Nothing beyond that summary has been tested.