CLAIMS that Scottish safecracker helped a Soviet double agent break out of an British prison and flee to Russia during the height of the Cold War are to be turned into a film.

George Blake was jailed for 42 years in 1961 for spying for the Russians, but broke out of Wormwood Scrubs using a ladder made of knitting needles and feld behind the Iron Curtain.

Before his death in 1994, Glasgow career criminal Paddy Meehan claimed to have played a role in the escape, but his story was dismissed as a fantasy.

He said he had contacted the Stasi, East Germany's secret police and through them made contact with the KGB, who arranged Blake's flight from justice.

Now screenwriter Mark MacNicol has uncovered evidence which appears to corroborate Meehan's claims after uncovering proof he spent time in East Berlin's Hohenschonhausen - the secret service jail.

Mr MacNicol said: "He claimed to have spent 18 months giving information on the vulnerabilities of UK prisons and possible escape routes.

"I actually visited the prison in East Berlin, which is now a museum, and staff took me to the cell where Paddy spent most of his time.

"We know now for the first time that he was definitely there. His story checks out."

The story has been picked up by production company Sinner Films, and independent agency. David Murdoch, the company's spokesman, said: "It is exciting to be working on a project that takes the traditional Glasgow crime drama and unexpectedly weaves it into a Cold War thriller."