A STOLEN World War Two device used by the Nazis to send secret messages was returned yesterday - in Jeremy Paxman's post.

The typewriter-sized Enigma machine - addressed to the BBC presenter - had been lying in the Newsnight office for days.

Paxman said: "As soon as I opened it I realised what it was. I haven't a clue why they sent it to me. As far as I know I haven't got a reputation as a receiver of stolen goods."

It was taken six months ago from a museum at Bletchley Park, the wartime home of mathematicians and linguists given the vital task of breaking the Enigma code.

Their success in doing was seen by many historians as swinging the war decisively in the Allies' favour.

A man claiming to have the machine and wanting a pounds 25,000 ransom threatened to destroy it last month unless his demand was met.

The device - worth pounds 100,000 - was returned in a wooden box covered in bubble wrap. It has yet to be authenticated but has the same G312 serial mark as the missing one.

An Enigma machine featured in hit war film U-571 and Kate Winslet stars in a yet-to-be released wartime drama Enigma, about the work at the base near Milton Keynes, Bucks.

  Intermedia Film
Enigma mystery takes new twist
October 18, 2000

The case of the stolen Enigma cipher machine took a fresh twist when it was discovered in the offices of BBC's Newsnight. It had been sent to presenter Jeremy Paxman. Sadly, three of the four decoder rotors were missing.

The Enigma machine was stolen from Bletchley Park in April. The wartime code-cracking facility near Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire is the setting for the Intermedia production Enigma, which is currently in post-production.

A letter from a man claiming to be acting on behalf of "The Master" had asked for a £25,000 payment for the machine, which he claimed his employer had bought not realising it had been stolen. When assurances of immunity from police prosecution were not satisfactorily expressed, a threat to destroy the device was made.

Intermedia's World War II code-cracking drama Enigma is directed by Michael Apted, and stars Dougray Scott, Kate Winslet and Saffron Burrows.