The girlfriend of the salsa-dancing Army 秘かに調査する 明らかにする／漏らすs their bizarre 関係

By Antonia Hoyle, Mail on Sunday Feature Writer
Updated: 10:12 BST, 16 November 2008

Standing by her man: Jemma Garrett, with her pet shitzsu Leo last week, still believes her boyfriend is innocent of 秘かに調査するing

She is a fun-loving 信奉者 of fashion who favours popular culture over politics.

So it is fitting that Jemma Garrett was sitting on her white leather sofa, sipping a glass of Pinot Grigio and watching a rerun of American sitcom Friends when her neon-pink phone rang.

It was her boyfriend’s son, who broke the news that his father, a British 兵士 serving in Afghanistan, had been 逮捕（する）d on 疑惑 of 秘かに調査するing for Iran and was 存在 held in 刑務所，拘置所.

Jemma sobbed in shock and bewilderment as the news sank in.

She 簡単に could not believe that the man she had loved for five years could be 有能な of such outrageous treachery.

But Corporal Daniel James ? who had been working as personal interpreter to the 指揮官 of Nato 軍隊s in Afghanistan, General Sir David Richards ? was 罪人／有罪を宣告するd earlier this month at the Old Bailey of communicating with an enemy.

James, 45, an eccentric dance fanatic, 述べるd himself as the ‘King of salsa’ in 法廷，裁判所 and 主張するd, somewhat implausibly, that he had 簡単に been trying to 改善する relations between Afghanistan and Iran.

He was exposed as a fanta sist, ‘a bit of a Walter Mitty’ who led a 二塁打 life and was ひどく in 負債. Had he not been caught sending coded emails to the Iranian 大使館 in Kabul, he could have cost British 兵士s’ lives and even put our 国家の 安全 at 危険.

He is を待つing 宣告，判決 and 直面するs up to seven years in 刑務所，拘置所, though he has already served two years on 再拘留（者）.

一方／合間 Jemma, 27, is trying to come to 条件 with her own sense of betrayal.

‘What he did was wrong and I’m very angry,’ she says. ‘I certainly didn’t think he was 有能な of doing something like this. He should never have sent those emails. I could 非難する him for what he’s done.’

Incredibly, however, she believes he is innocent. ‘Danny had the greatest 意向s and all he was trying to do was help people in Iran,’ she says.

株d passion: Jemma Garrett and Daniel James loved to salsa and were both 指導者s

‘There’s no way he’d be 有能な of 秘かに調査するing. He loved Britain and would never betray our country. Most of our friends are British. When he gets out I’m going to cook him a medium-rare 残余 steak and then we’re going to have a big party. Everyone will be 招待するd.’

Her 忠義 is endearingly naive, if わずかに ludicrous. Then again, nothing about Jemma ? also a salsa fanatic ? is 特に conve ntional.

Sitting in the smart one-bedroom Brighton apartment she moved into after James was 再拘留（者）d, Jemma is surrounded by pink ? her favourite colour ? in the form of 着せる／賦与するs, rugs, fairy lights, ornaments and earrings.

With her shitzsu Leo (wearing a pink dog pullover) perched on her 膝 and posters of her idol, Marilyn Monroe, adorning the 塀で囲むs, it would be 平易な to 解任する her as a ditsy airhead.

Yet she is also incredibly 甘い, scurrying around fetching 甘いs and crisps and fretting that the living room is not at the 権利 気温.

It was not just, she （人命などを）奪う，主張するs, her bubbly nature that attracted James in the first place.

Jemma, now training to be a beautician, 収容する／認めるs: ‘He could have had any young blonde. He didn’t just 選ぶ me because we both love dancing. We’re both 肉親，親類d-hearted and level-長，率いるd.’

They met when she was 18 at a seafront club in Brighton, where James was 持つ／拘留するing one of his thrice-週刊誌 salsa lessons.

特権d position: Corporal James 解釈する／通訳するing in Afghanistan for Nato 指揮官 General Sir David Richards

‘He was already known in the city for his dancing,’ says Jemma, who at the time was still living with her parents, who own an 電気の company.

‘I looked at him and thought, “Wow.” He said, “Hello, sexy,” but it was too loud to talk. He やめる literally swept me off my feet.’

He also 奮起させるd in her a love for dancing. ‘It’s so 熱烈な,’ she says. ‘I went to Danny’s house for lessons and became an 指導者 myself.’

最初 they were just friends. ‘Danny was a playboy ? it was his 職業 to flirt on the dancefloor, after all ? so I thought it was for the best that there was no romance,’ says Jemma, who left college that year with a BTEC in マスコミ 熟考する／考慮するs.

She? changed her mind four years later when she was 22.

‘I’d had a couple of 不成功の 関係s and Danny had been there to 慰安 me after both,’ she says. ‘I decided to give it a go.’

Their backgrounds could not have been more different. James ? a member of the 領土の Army for 18 years before he was 発射する／解雇するd after his 逮捕（する） ? was born Esmail Mohammed Beigi Gamasai and brought up in Tehran.

When he was 15, his father, who owned a food 商売／仕事 in his 母国, arrived in Brighton to 始める，決める up a 住宅 機関, bringing James with him.

He was 入会させるd at the 私的な St Mary’s College, but dropped out the に引き続いて year with no 資格s.

His parents moved 支援する to Iran and both died about five years ago. James remained in Britain and, at 19, he married an English hairdresser.

The marriage produced one son, now 20, and lasted nine years, by which time James was a British 国民.

Neither Jemma nor her middle-class family ? she has a sister training to be a 操縦する ? were worried about James’s colourful past.

‘We loved him because he was clean-living, 井戸／弁護士席-mannered and incredibly caring. He was in awe of me,’? says Jemma. ‘加える, I’d had older boyfriends before.’

In 2000, James bought the 200-capacity New York Club in Brighton. ‘We’d walk 一連の会議、交渉／完成する the streets 手渡すing out flyers,’ she says.

‘And teaching dance there together brought us closer. But when he was away with th e TA he left it in the 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金 of a 経営者／支配人, who ran it 不正に. This led to the £25,000 負債 述べるd at Danny’s 裁判，公判. He sold the club four years ago. I didn’t think all this was such a big 取引，協定.’

Jemma and her dog Leo moved into James’s two-bedroom flat in the city. He also owned the two 所有物／資産／財産s above it and another one nearby, letting them to friends.

He took Jemma to four-星／主役にする hotels in far-flung 目的地s such as Brazil and Cuba and plied her with pink roses, gold jewellery and even helped her buy a silver 転換できる MG.

She had been told by one of James’s TA 同僚s that his Army career would earn him £90,000 a year.

‘I didn’t ask where the money （機の）カム from,’ she shrugs. ‘I assumed it was because he worked hard. That was one of the things he loved about Britain ? the 適切な時期s 利用できる.

He also liked EastEnders and the England football team ? he bet £40 on them during the World Cup. Although he went 支援する to visit family in Iran a couple of times, he saw Britain as his home.’

James, a qualified 狙撃者 and personal training 指導者, would be away training with the TA for weeks at a time.

‘We drank mojitos when we went out dancing, but he didn’t go out much with the Army guys,’ she says. ‘Instead he taught himself languages, 含むing Spanish.’

Because he 手配中の，お尋ね者 to go to Afghanistan, James also learned Dari, a Persian dialect spoken 広範囲にわたって by the Afghans. He was already fluent in Farsi, the most ありふれた Persian dialect, which he learnt as a child.

‘He’d go to bed with his dictionary,’ smiles Jemma. ‘He was incredibly driven. He 手配中の，お尋ね者 to become 大統領 or King of the world.’

When he was at home they made up for lost time. ‘We made love to salsa music and 存在 able to dance definitely helped us in the bedroom,’ she giggles.

‘I loved his 削減（する） bum and muscly 武器 and he looked gorgeous in Army uniform.’

But at 6am she would lose him to the gym, whe re he would often spend the whole day.

‘He was more obsessed with his 外見 than I am,’ she says. ‘いつかs we argued, mostly about silly things like me leaving my hair 拡張s on his carpet. But we 手配中の，お尋ね者 to have three children together.’

In March 2006, however, he was 地位，任命するd abroad.

‘I was terrified,’ says Jemma. ‘When Danny watched the news I’d make him turn over to Trisha. I hated the idea of anything happening to him. Before he left, I told him I loved him and always would. He said he’d give me babies when he got 支援する.’

James was 最初 sent to serve with a 部隊 training Afghan 軍の 職員／兵員. But, on account of his linguistic 技術s, he was asked to 解釈する／通訳する for General Richards, who will be 任命するd the Army’s 長，指導者 of the General Staff next year.

James was given 最高の，を越す 安全 通関手続き／一掃 giving him 接近 to the Nato base in Kabul and his 義務s 含むd …に出席するing 会合s with Afghan and Western 高官s, it was a 特権d position.

‘He was so proud,’ remembers Jemma. ‘But he didn’t go into 詳細（に述べる）. I like shoes, shopping and a 偽の tan. I 設立する his work boring. How much could we really talk about war?’

Her ignorance, while exasperating and at times staggering, 示唆するs at least that she was fully unaware of her boyfriend’s underhand activities in Afghanistan. She does, however, remember him feeling he was the 犠牲者 of 人種差別主義.

‘On one trip 支援する home he said he felt his 同僚s were annoyed he had his 職業 when he wasn’t British-born,’ she says. ‘He was also annoyed because he was waiting for the General to 促進する him to sergeant.’

James was returning from leave in December 2006 when he was 逮捕（する）d at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire. The police called his son, who called Jemma.

‘I cried my 注目する，もくろむs out,’ she says.

‘I felt 権力のない. It was a week before I could see him. My parents took me to Wandsworth 刑務所，拘置所 in London to visit him. Seeing him sur 一連の会議、交渉／完成するd by 殺害者s was awful. He said the police 主張s were “silly”. I told him he’d been stupid but believed he hadn’t meant any 害（を与える）.’

In the に引き続いて months she put on a 石／投石する and a half through 慰安 eating and やめる salsa because it brought 支援する too many memories of her time with James.

In an 試みる／企てる to distract herself, she 入会させるd in a beauty training course, 基金d by £250-a-day 転換s as a presenter on a 衛星 television dating channel.

‘I visited Danny about once a month,’ she says. ‘いつかs I brought our friends from the salsa scene, although those from the TA kept their distance. There were people committing 自殺 around him and he once said he’d considered it himself, which was horrendous. He tries to stay 肯定的な although he can’t salsa in 刑務所，拘置所 ? he’d get beaten up.’

James’s three-week 裁判，公判 started last month, by which time he had changed the nature of his defence several times. The 陪審／陪審員団 learned that, angry at not 存在 促進するd and feeling he was a 犠牲者 of 人種差別主義, he had listened in on confidential conversations between his boss and Afghan 大臣s.

He sent coded emails, passing on his knowledge about Nato 器具／備品 and 操作／手術s in Afghanistan, to 軍の assistant 陸軍大佐 Heydari at the Iranian 大使館 in Kabul, at a time when the Iranians were 嫌疑者，容疑者／疑うd of supporting the 暴動 against British 軍隊／機動隊s in Southern Afghanistan.

One email read: ‘I am at your service.’ Another: ‘I have a very good 現在の for you.’

It 現れるd that James had run salsa classes in Kabul, even 招待するing General Richards to …に出席する ? an 申し込む／申し出, the General told the 法廷，裁判所, he had ‘respectfully 拒絶する／低下するd’.

The 起訴 （刑事）被告 James of using ‘黒人／ボイコット 魔法’ to 保護する General Richards from the Taliban. ‘He didn’t practise 黒人／ボイコット 魔法 and didn’t believe in a 明確な／細部 宗教,’ says Jemma, who …に出席するd the last week of the 裁判，公判.

James’s defence ? that his emails were part of an 試みる／企てる to arra nge a 取引，協定 whereby Iran would 供給（する） Afghanistan with gas and oil, and that he had been trying to 改善する relations between Iran and the 部隊d 明言する／公表するs ? was 解任するd by the 起訴 as ‘pure fiction’.

He was 罪人／有罪を宣告するd of communicating （警察などへの）密告，告訴（状） to an enemy, an offence under the 公式の／役人 Secrets 行為／法令／行動する, and now を待つs 宣告，判決ing.

The 陪審／陪審員団 was 発射する／解雇するd after failing to reach a 判決 on two その上の 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金s of collecting （警察などへの）密告，告訴（状） by carrying ‘Nato-confidential’ 軍の 報告（する）／憶測s on a computer memory stick and wilful 不品行／姦通 in public office. It is not yet known if there will be a retrial.

‘Danny could only type with one finger,’ says Jemma.

‘He couldn’t have done anything so technical.’

Regardless, the 出来事/事件 has raised embarrassing questions about the 軍の’s 審査 過程 for 極度の慎重さを要する 地位，任命するs.

As James has already been in 保護／拘留 for two years, he could be 解放する／自由な soon.

‘I 行方不明になる him like mad,’ says Jemma. ‘There has never been any 疑問 in my mind that he is innocent. Yes, he sent some stupid emails. But is that really a betrayal of Britain?’

The 法律, of course, says it is. But those who don’t agree will be welcome to join Jemma at her salsa party in Brighton to celebrate her boyfriend’s 解放（する）.