A Canberra spy who spent more than a decade in a US federal prison after being convicted of espionage charges has snubbed Australia, the country he once considered home.
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Jean-Philippe Wispelaere was convicted of US charges after the Australian government allowed the FBI to organise a sting which trapped the wannabe spy in 1999.
The Australian National University graduate had felt betrayed, but was still expected to return to Australia last month when he was released from prison. His mother, Eleanor Lancaster, lives in North Fitzroy and he was raised in East Brunswick.
But US authorities have confirmed Wispelaere was deported to Canada, his country of birth.
The 41-year-old declined an interview from McRae Correctional Facility, one of three prisons where he spent 13 years in US custody, shortly before his release.
Ms Lancaster also declined to comment.
Wispelaere admitted during the trial that he thought he was ''James Bond pulling the coup of the century'' when he stole almost 1400 secret US documents while working for the Defence Intelligence Organisation in Canberra in 1999.
He tried to sell the documents at a foreign embassy in Bangkok, but embassy officials contacted the FBI.
Former barrister Ivan Himmelhoch, who was Wispelaere's Australian lawyer, argued that Australia had thrown Wispelaere to the wolves by allowing US authorities to charge him.
Mr Himmelhoch said Wispelaere never mentioned living in Canada and considered Australia home, despite his treatment by the government.
''He felt Australia left him in the lurch because they didn't charge him,'' he said.
''Perhaps spending all that time in prison turned him further against Australia, but I can only guess.''
Under a plea bargain agreed to by Wispelaere, he was also eligible to return to serve the final five years of his sentence.
Wispelaere was unable to be contacted in Canada, and officials there would not comment on his case.
