Boozy Walter Mitty past of bomb rap Scot; He claimed he was in Czech secret service.

Byline: ANNA SMITH EXCLUSIVE

ONE of the Scots facing public beheading in Saudi Arabia was exposed yesterday as a Walter Mitty with a drink problem.

Alexander Mitchell, who confessed on Saudi TV to a car bombing that killed Briton Christopher Rodway, 47, once bragged he had three passports and worked for the Czech secret service.

He boasted of being in the crack Parachute Regiment and told tales of heroic deeds in the Falklands, but in reality, he was a hospital theatre technician.

Yesterday, John Dickson, who worked with Mitchell in Oman, told the Record that the Scot was deported after being caught drunk at work.

The retired army medic said: "I cannot imagine how Sandy got mixed up in this car bomb.

"But he's just daft enough to get involved with some kind of gang for a bit of bravado."

The Saudis have warned that they will execute Mitchell, from Kirkintilloch, near Glasgow, and Scots-born William Sampson, after they confessed to planting the bomb that killed hospital engineer Mr Rodway in Riyadh.

Mitchell has lived in Saudi for eight years with his Thai wife and they have one child.

The Scot, who worked at the Internal Security Hospital in Riyadh, described on state-run Saudi TV how he placed the bomb under the driver's seat of Mr Rodway's jeep last November.

He said that he and Sampson, who holds Canadian and UK passports, then detonated the bomb by remote control.

Civil rights activists have branded the confessions a show trial and friends of Mitchell are convinced he was tortured.

But yesterday, as British diplomats tried to get to the bottom of the mystery, John, from Edinburgh, revealed Mitchell's bizarre background.

He first met the Scots Walter Mitty in the mid-1980s when he worked at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary and Mitchell was a drugs rep.

John said: "Sandy kept saying he had been in the Parachute Regiment.

"He even said he tried to get in the SAS, which I knew to be nonsense because the selection for that is incredibly tough.

"He wore a Para tie and told me when he was in the Falklands, which he wasn't, and did all sorts of incredible things.

"Then he told me he had British, Czech and Canadian passports. He said he worked for the Czech secret service and had a Czech wife.

"But I never saw her, and I wondered how he could be a secret agent and just a drugs rep."

Around that time, John left Edinburgh to work with the Sultan of Oman's medical services in the town of Muskat.

He said: "Sandy had spoken to me about the work in Oman and expressed an interest to go there.

"I said it was a military job and wouldn't be a problem to him.

"He came as an operating theatre technician and was given the rank of sergeant.

"He stuck to the same line that he was an ex-Para. But we had a big squad of ex-Paras there and none of them knew him.

"Even guys who'd been in the Falklands hadn't heard of him and they just cross-examined him all the time.

"It was one lie after another, and they were on to him right away.

"Airborne regiments - like the Paras - talk a certain language - and Sandy didn't talk it."

John was then posted to another hospital in Oman, where Mitchell later arrived to fill in for him while he was on 20 days leave to the UK.

John said: "I showed him around the camp and specifically made the point that Friday is falling down day. Everyone gets so drunk they fall down.

"But Sandy was on 24-hour duty, and was told on no account was he to touch even a drop."

John says Mitchell ignored his instructions and got very drunk.

Later that night several people were injured in a gunfight and brought to the hospital.

John said: "Sandy was called out at midnight as soldiers were arriving with gunshot wounds.

"There is only one doctor, one anaesthetist and him. But when he arrived, he had to hold on to the wall to stand upright.

"He was like a blind man groping along with his hands. He was spotted by an officer and two others took him to his room.

"The next day he was taken to the airport and put on the first flight back to Heathrow."

John believes that this time, Mitchell has got himself involved in a tall tale too far.

He added: "I can't believe he would be the kind of guy to blow up a car, but he might just open his mouth the wrong way and give himself a lot of problems.

"He is in big trouble now."