This is from the BBC website. It is a very disturbing story and seems to have more or less disappeared from most new platforms.
A woman who was terrorised and abused by an MI5 agent is taking legal action against the security service.
Beth, not her real name, has lodged a formal complaint with the watchdog for the intelligence agencies, the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT).
On Thursday, a BBC investigation revealed her then partner used his security status to coercively control her.
He also attacked her with a machete and threatened to kill her.
The Centre for Women's Justice (CWJ) said Beth was asking the IPT to investigate MI5's recruitment and handling of the agent, X, and whether any steps were taken to address the clear risk of harm he posed.
She will also argue that MI5's conduct may have breached her human rights by "enabling X to subject her to serious violence and abuse with impunity".
The IPT is an independent, official panel that considers complaints about conduct by or on behalf of MI5, MI6 and GCHQ.
The IPT has the power to consider alleged breaches of human rights by intelligence agencies.
If it ultimately ruled that MI5 failed to take appropriate action to protect Beth from harm, that could impact all the UK's intelligence and security agencies that recruit and task undercover informants.
In practical terms that could force more detailed assessments of the risks that agents pose. It could potentially mean agencies decide some informants are too dangerous to recruit, no matter the value of the intelligence they may have.
In a recent ground-breaking case against the police, the IPT awarded £230,000 compensation to a woman who had been tricked into a sexual relationship with an undercover officer.
And so a ruling against MI5 in this case would almost certainly lead to damages for Beth.
If the IPT decides to examine the complaint, its panel will have to balance human rights considerations with wider questions about why the information provided by X was thought to be operationally vital.
Behind closed doors, the tribunal would be likely to examine MI5's paperwork and witness evidence about why this agent was important.
The questions Beth's case raise mean its outcome could become a major moment in the law governing undercover operations.
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