The moral battle faced by those who spy for their country

Jack Beaumont spent eight years as an international spy, but as Gary Jubelin discovers in the return of I Catch Killers, the brutal reality of a life of deception is nothing like the James Bond world of Aston Martins and martinis.

On the big screen the world of an international spy is one of glamour and intrigue, but scratch beneath the surface and the reality is that it is a life of paranoia, danger, with death a constant threat.

As Jack Beaumont reveals to Gary Jubelin in the return of his new weekly I Catch Killers podcast, released on Monday, not once in his eight years in the French Foreign Secret Service did he drive an Aston Martin.

In a riveting episode Beaumont, who was a fighter pilot in the French Air Force prior to becoming a spy, takes listeners on a chilling journey into the world of espionage and spooks and how a target is manipulated and then exploited for the information they contain.

Former French Foregin Secret Service spy Jack Beaumont gives an insight into the world of spies in the return of I Catch Killers. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

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“You get to know this person and someone you really realise that in another life this person could really have become a friend … You end up looking at yourself in the mirror and thinking ‘I’m a monster’,” Beaumont tells podcast host Jubelin.

“I’m just bringing this guy and his family to a bad end when he’s a good person but I’m supposed to do this job to help and save the good people and actually that’s not what I’m doing.

“So you have this dilemma and you have to develop this dark side as much as you can and one day you realise that this dark side is taking more space.”

The Frenchman

This internal conflict was a constant companion. It surfaced often such as the time Beaumont befriended a university student, who had been studying under an assumed name and whose father was “a very bad guy”.

“He (the student) liked me so much he wanted me to meet his dad,” Beaumont recalls of his meeting in a coffee shop with the father, the target of the mission.

Out of earshot of the university student, Beaumont revealed who he was to the father.

“The father said: ‘Oh, so are you a friend of my son. That’s great. And so you’ve been meeting at the university, you’re doing the same studies, blah, blah, blah,’” Beaumont tells Jubelin of the encounter.

“And I said: “Well, actually, I’m not his friend. I’m not studying. I’m working for the French Secret Service. I know what I want to know is this, this and this and that. And the guy became all white, very pale and said, ‘I don’t understand’. So I said, ‘Well, your son’s going to come back to the table and you’re going to say that his friend is very nice.

“Meanwhile, if you refuse to work with us the name of your son, his false name under which he is doing your studies in this country will be dropped to the local services as well. And he will be arrested because they want to reach you as well. And he will be captured or interrogated, tortured and so that they can leverage you. So if you refuse to work with me nicely, then I will drop your son to the wolves.”

Beaumont, who has just released a book called The Frenchman, reveals even more about life living in the shadows in the return of I Catch Killers. Episode one will be released Monday followed by part two on Thursday wherever you subscribe to your podcasts.