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SCMP Reporter

A former stripper has told how the FBI's alleged Russian spy, Robert Hanssen, took her on an expenses-paid holiday to Hong Kong, where he insisted on sleeping in separate hotels.

Priscilla Sue Galey told the Washington Post  that Hanssen - a top FBI counter-intelligence agent - took her to Hong Kong in April 1991 before his interest in her faded.

Her testimony comes after papers, including a folder marked 'Hong Kong' and a Hong Kong street map, were found in Hanssen's possession after his arrest for allegedly spying for Moscow.

Ms Galey said her mysterious benefactor walked her from her strip club in central Washington one afternoon to a travel agent to get a ticket after obtaining a passport for her in a single day.

He insisted they take separate flights to Hong Kong, stay in separate hotels and meet only for breakfast and dinner - always alone.

She managed to get a photo of him in Hong Kong - her only shot of him - which he later snatched from her and destroyed.

Ms Galey said she knew he worked for the FBI but knew nothing about his alleged espionage. Of their visit to Hong Kong, she said: 'I got the courage to ask him what was going on a few times, and he'd always laugh and say, 'I could tell you, but I'd have to kill you'.'

Hanssen was arrested on February 18 after a lengthy investigation into allegations that he spent the last 15 years of his 27-year FBI career spying for Moscow.

Court documents allege Hanssen, now in custody pending trial, may have caused the deaths of at least two agents and compromised dozens of spy programmes and techniques, including tipping off Moscow about a secret tunnel beneath its controversial Washington Embassy.

His former bosses claim Moscow paid him US$600,000 (HK$4.7 million) in cash and diamonds and put a further US$800,000 in foreign bank accounts.

A search of his car shortly after his arrest on his way to hand over more secret documents uncovered a document folder marked 'Hong Kong' and maps of Hong Kong, Japan and Tokyo.

Investigators have yet to comment on his wider espionage activities or possible links to the region. His last official role saw him working as an FBI liaison officer to the State Department's intelligence section.

While living frugally in suburban Virginia as a father-of-six, Hanssen showered US$100,000 worth of fine jewellery on Ms Galey and gave her a Mercedes and her own American Express card as well as the trip to Hong Kong.

She said he never wanted a sexual relationship but frequently urged her to get out of the stripping business and go to church. 'He was just the nicest person on Earth,' Ms Galey said. 'I thought he was my own personal angel'.

Their friendship started after he sent a note with a US$10 tip backstage, telling her he'd never dreamed of finding such grace and beauty in a strip club. Later, he took her to expensive Washington dining rooms.

The friendship faded and Ms Galley moved home to Ohio. Now 43 and destitute, she works as a prostitute on the streets of Columbus to support a three-year-old son and an addiction to crack cocaine, the Washington Post  said.

She now believes he may have been grooming her to help him in some way, at one point giving her an encoded lap-top computer, which she failed to master.

'He wanted to see how I handled myself,' she said, still speculating on his motives. 'He wanted to see if he could trust me. I trusted him completely and if he had asked me to do anything, I would have. I believed he was everything he wasn't'.



FBI agent accused of working for Russia lavished gifts on companion but insisted they use separate hotels