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It was about this time that he dropped in to an old Anglican church in the Kings Cross area of Sydney and became a member. He took part in discussion groups and it was during one of these that he revealed his connection with Dimona.

News of this reached a South American journalist who offered to act as an agent for the story and went to Madrid where he contacted The Sunday Times.

Unsatisfied about how much he was personally to receive, the journalist contacted the Sunday Mirror, which published a report on September 28.

A week later The Sunday Times story appeared, but by then Mr Vanunu had disappeared from a London hotel where he had been talking to the newspaper.

He had been lured to Italy by Cheryl Bentov, a female Mossad agent, who had posed as an American student called Cindy.

In Rome Vanunu was drugged and beaten by Mossad agents and jailed for espionage at Shikma prison in the coastal town of Ashkelon, where he remained until this morning.

The completion of his sentence is unlikely to lead to a reunification with his father Shlomo, a former rabbi, who has disowned his eldest son. His mother has never visited him behind bars.

He crossed what Israelis of all political persuasions regard as a red line. He abandoned Judaism and converted to Christianity – too much for his Orthodox parents to bear.

Vanunu has since been legally adopted by a couple from Minnesota, Nick and Mary Eoloff, who have travelled to Israel for his release.

"We believe that what he did was an act of civil disobedience and not a crime," Nick Eoloff said. Vanunu's brother, Meir, has been supportive and voiced concern for his safety.

Vanunu now signs his letters with the initials JC, having adopted a new name - John Crossman - which he chose in reference to the Cross of Christ. His first act on gaining his freedom today was to take Communion at an Anglican cathedral.

Even thought the Israeli authorities have denied him the right to travel or talk to foreigners – restrictions that he likened to apartheid – Vanunu wants to visit the United States and the UK and to study and teach history.

Thanking his supporters today as he left prison, and showing the defiance that has allowed him to survive almost two decades behind bars, he said: "I am a symbol of the will of freedom, that you cannot destroy the human spirit... I will continue to speak against all kinds of nuclear weapons, against all democracies' nuclear weapons."

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