VID013 transcript - The Police’s Dirty Secret (Dispatches) Programme first transmitted 24 June 2013, Channel 4 (UK). Transcription by BristleKRS - this draft completed 9 February 2015 Reporter: Paul Lewis Interviewees: Peter Francis Doreen Lawrence Helen Steel Jacqui Belinda Harvey Jack Straw Mick Creedon ======= Paul Lewis: Tonight an undercover cop reveals all about Britain’s police spies. Peter Francis: It’s unbelievable this is happening in England. The word Stasi springs to mind. Paul Lewis: For decades undercover agents have infiltrated political campaigns and protest groups. Jack Straw: I would be interested to know how far up the chain of authority this misdirection, perversion of police resources and priorities and principles, actually went. Paul Lewis: We hear exclusively from women who had sexual relationships with men they didn’t know were police. Jacqui: It’s like being raped by the state. That’s how we all feel. We feel that we were sexually abused. Paul Lewis: And we can now reveal who these spies were really targeting. Paul Lewis: Did your supervisors want intelligence on members of Stephen’s family? Peter Francis: They wanted any intelligence that could have smeared the campaign, yes. Doreen Lawrence: We are constantly having to have suspicion around our police force when they’re there supposed to be upholding the law. Titles: The Police’s Dirty Secret
Channel 4 Dispatches Onscreen: #PoliceSecrets Paul Lewis: October 1993. An anti-racist demonstration against the BNP. Hidden deep among the protesters is an undercover police spy. Twenty years later he’s revealing his true identity for the first time, to lift the lid on Britain’s secret police. Paul Lewis: I’ve spent two years investigating the units he and an estimated hundred and thirty other undercover officers have worked for. Paul Lewis: Peter Francis was recruited to a top secret Special Branch division called the Special Demonstration Squad, or SDS. His unit would meet at this pub in West London. Paul Lewis: So do you recognise it? Peter Francis: Yeah, uh, yeah, because enough of the whole structure of the building hasn’t changed, but it certainly wasn’t decorated this way when we were here. We had many a drinks in here, with the fellow SDS officers. Paul Lewis: Shall we get a drink? Peter Francis: Okay. Paul Lewis: Yeah yeah? What do you fancy? Paul Lewis: Peter graduated top of his class from the Metropolitan Police training school in 1986. Seven years later he joined the SDS. The unit was then made up of ten undercover police spies, and a couple of managers. Few outside of the squad knew of its existence. Peter Francis: It was a secret unit, within the Special Branch, who are the secret police. So, who knew about this? It’s not rogue, it’s just very well hidden. Peter Francis: The day one you actually start your police identity is taken off you, you actually give away your warrant card and anything to do with the police, your association with the police is just wiped off the earth. Paul Lewis: Peter’s first task was to adopt a credible cover. We’re heading towards Islington now, where my first undercover flat was. The importance of a good undercover flat just can’t be overemphasised, because you’re taking all your targets back to your house, they’re going to go in there, they’re going to see in there, they’re going to see how you live. Paul Lewis: Peter was an exemplary officer, awarded a commendation for his service. He was married, with children, but committed himself to a four year undercover posting, only seeing his family one night a week.
Peter Francis: Yes, so basically if you look at it, though it’s vastly changed, this would have been my flat from September 1993 to the beginning, the middle of 1996, this was my flat. Paul Lewis: In his undercover role Peter Francis assumed a new identity. He reinvented himself as ‘Pete Black’. Peter Francis: Well, we agreed who my pretend parents were. We’d agreed everything. I’d scripted it, and my senior managers had scripted it with me. This was a script that was turning into a character, and I became Pete Black. When I was hereI would stand in front of the mirror, and I would look into it, and I would say ‘I am Pete Black’. Paul Lewis: The SDS’s aim was to monitor demonstrations and provide advance intelligence on the likelihood of violent disorder by protesters. Each of its ten undercover officers infiltrated campaigns and protest groups across the political spectrum, from extreme left wing to right wing. Paul Lewis: Peter was initially tasked with infiltrating anarchist groups. But just weeks before his deployment in September 1993 his mission changed to spying on anti-racist movements in the capital. Peter Francis: The shift in my potential posting that took place can be summarised in two words - and that was ‘Stephen Lawrence’. VO (Library): Stephen Lawrence was killed by a group of white boys on this road. They called him ‘nigger’, and stabbed him twice. VO (Library): His father has called for the return of the death penalty. Neville Lawrence (Library): Well, I think they should bring back hanging. It’s a senseless murder. Paul Lewis: The April 1993 murder of Stephen Lawrence was a watershed moment in British policing. The Met bungled the investigation, and was later condemned for its ‘institutional racism’. Doreen Lawrence (Library): When one of your children has been brutally murdered, you are looking for those with the power to do something about it. My on was stabbed and left to bleed to death while police officers looked on. They treated the affair as a gang war, and from that moment on acted in a manner that can only be described as, as white masters during slavery. Paul Lewis: Many left wing movements aligned themselves with the Lawrence family’s fight for justice. At the request of his managers, Peter joined Youth Against Racism in Europe, ardent supporters of the cause. Peter Francis: Extremely high management were drawing parallels between the Stephen Lawrence and, potential, a Rodney King scenario in LA, where extreme violent disorder broke out on the streets of LA. And hands down the requests from
Stephen Lawrence - what was happening with a campaign, what was the likelihood of disorder on the streets if this involves the campaign - there was no campaign like it when I was out there. Paul Lewis: Peter rose to become a branch secretary of Youth Against Racism in Europe. As he became a trusted face in the group, he didn’t only collect information on demonstrations. Living six days a week undercover he attended meetings and befriended activists, and he gathered intelligence which could undermine support for those campaigning for Stephen Lawrence. Peter Francis: I was also asked, the same as all other campaigns, could I find out anything else that could be used to maybe get the public to not have as much sympathy for the Stephen Lawrence campaign, as it what it truly had. Is there anything that the police could possibly use through the media to start maybe tarring the campaign. It means the amount of sympathy that campaign can generate locally is, is going to be vastly diminished. Paul Lewis: In the weeks after their son’s death, Doreen and Neville Lawrence complained that the police were not doing enough to catch his killers. Peter alleges that he and other police spies were in fact looking for intelligence that could discredit the family and the campaign. Paul Lewis: Did your supervisors want intelligence on members of Stephen’s family? Peter Francis: They wanted any intelligence that could have smeared the campaign, yes, there is this general remit. So had I, through my circles, come up with something along the lines of they, the family, were political activists, someone in the family was involved in demonstrations, drug dealers, anything. What they would have done with the intelligence I can’t call it, but that is our remit, not just for them, that is always our remit when we’re out there. We find out intelligence, and then if it is needed, it’ll be used. Paul Lewis: Did you ever pick up anything about family members that you then passed back? Peter Francis: I wasn’t successful, no SDS officer was successful in finding anything really concrete. There was just a bit of hearsay, tittle-tattle. There was rumours and conjecture that the family itself may have not have been sort of a loving, caring home. That was passed on, about the family, that could have been used, may have been used, if they were really desperately trying to smear the family. Paul Lewis: Peter claims the Met found another way to spy on the Lawrences inside their own home. Peter Francis: The Family Liaison Officer, who is in Stephen Lawrence’s house, was taking all the details, of all the family members who were there, all the visitors who actually gave their details. This was then passed on to the Area Special Branch, the Area Special Branch then passed it through the Special Branch to the Special Branch Special Demonstration Squad. And we were asked to comment on these individuals, whether or not in their words they were ‘politicos’, or what, who they
were. Paul Lewis: So they wanted you and the other SDS officers to give them information on the political persuasion of the individuals who were visiting the family’s home? Peter Francis: Hundred percent. Because that would then allow us to make the assessment which way this campaign is likely to go in the public disorder arena. Paul Lewis: There’s no suggestion the Family Liaison Officers knew the purpose or destination of the information they collected. Peter states that demands for intelligence came from outside the SDS. Peter Francis: We only respond to external requests. So external requests that I’m not privy to would come in, they would say ‘right, what is known about the Stephen Lawrence campaign?’ Paul Lewis: Peter doesn’t know who knew about the spy campaign, but he does remember the then-Met Police Commissioner visited the squad here following their undercover work on a major anti-racist demonstration. Peter Francis: And basically this little flat here was, well, within normal parlance would be described as a safe house. And this is the actual flat that Sir Paul Condon actually came out to, he presented the whole of the unit with a bottle of whisky as well. PL And that was to say thank you… Peter Francis: That was to say thank you, yeah. Us, as a unit, who met behind that very door, said ‘this is going to happen, this is the police resources you need,’ the Commissioner thanked us for having the accurate assessment. Paul Lewis: What’s not known is if the former Met Commissioner was aware that the SDS were gathering intelligence on the Lawrence family that could be used to smear them. So, Dispatches asked him. He said… Onscreen Statement from Lord Condon: “I cannot rule out a meeting with special branch officers but I have no recollection of any meeting…I am certain that in my time as Commissioner I never authorised, condoned or was aware of the alleged activities of Peter Francis or any other officer being allegedly tasked to seek intelligence to discredit Mr and Mrs Lawrence” Paul Lewis: After the break, we tell Doreen Lawrence that the police spied on her. Doreen Lawrence: Out of all the things I’ve found out over the years, this has certainly topped it. Title screen: The Police’s Dirty Secret Channel 4 Dispatches
[Commercial break] Onscreen: #PoliceSecrets Paul Lewis: Dispatches is exposing shocking revelations about Britain’s secret police. Peter Francis, a former undercover police officer turned whistleblower, is revealing the inner workings of the Special Demonstration Squad. Peter Francis: It scares me, what’s actually been going on. It’s been described at morally repugnant, unbelievable this is happening in England… Paul Lewis: According to Peter, his deployment as a police spy was shaped by the murder of Stephen Lawrence. In the months after the teenager was killed, the Metropolitan Police came under sustained criticism for incompetence and racism. His grieving mother Doreen spent the following years campaigning for justice. Doreen Lawrence (Library): I don’t see how the Metropolitan Police is going to move on from today. Without admitting to what has been going on, there is no way they can move forward. Paul Lewis: According to Peter, what Doreen didn’t know is that whilst the Met were supposed to be catching Stephen’s killers, they were also collecting intelligence that could be used to smear her family and the campaign. Peter Francis (callback): Had I, through my circles, come up with something along the lines of they, the family, were political activists, someone in the family was involved in demonstrations, drug dealers, anything. What they would have done with the intelligence I can’t call it. Onscreen: Paul Lewis Guardian Journalist Paul Lewis: How does it feel to see that there was an orchestrated effort to discredit the campaign, and possibly also the family - individual members of the family? Onscreen: Doreen Lawrence Doreen Lawrence: I suppose it makes me really, really angry. That all of this has been going on, and all the time trying to undermine us as a family. Quite shocked, that back in that time during our time of grieving for our son, that there was someone sitting somewhere, calculating, infiltrating into our family. Out of all the things I have found out over the years, this certainly has topped it. Paul Lewis: Did it occur to you at the time that the reason they wanted to know who was visiting your house was to figure out the political persuasions of those individuals?
Doreen Lawrence: We weren’t linked to any political groups, you know, we weren’t linked to any of them. So at the time we would have had no idea as to the reason why they were asking the question, or why they were suspicious of anybody who was in our house. Political groups? No, nothing can justify trying to discredit the family or the people around us. Paul Lewis: Peter Francis says the Lawrences couldn’t be discredited. But this man was. Dwayne Brooks was with Stephen on the night of his murder, and witnessed the attack. Peter Francis: We did start to look at Dwayne to see if there is possibly a way we can, smear is the best word, the campaign by a different direction. Paul Lewis: Just a month after Stephen’s death, an anti-racist demonstration outside south-east London BNP headquarters turned violent. Peter Francis picked up intelligence that Dwayne Brooks may have been involved. He reported the information back to his superiors and was asked to dig further. Peter Francis: Myself and another SDS officer went through the material we had, the media we had, and between us we’d identified him participating in some criminality, perceived criminality. This then was sent through the same chain of commands Special Branch DI, DCI, out to Division again, and the decision was obviously made to go and arrest Dwayne for said offences. Paul Lewis: Did they seem pleased that you’d found that? Peter Francis: Yes. Yes, they did seem pleased that we’d found out. I think also it provided probably the first ‘in’ ever in the Stephen Lawrence campaign.This is a clear, whiter-than-white campaign, can’t be tarnished, the public’s all behind it - and all of a sudden Stephen Lawrence’s friend was actually a violent activist. Paul Lewis: A month after Peter Francis says he placed Dwayne Brooks at the demonstration, Dwayne was charged with criminal damage and violent disorder. The case was dismissed as an abuse of process. Paul Lewis: In the years after his death Stephen Lawrence’s parents and supporters carried on campaigning. Doreen Lawrence (Library): It’s four years on since me son was murdered, and what we want out of this is to find out the truth about exactly what went on on that night, and the only way we’re going to get the truth is by having a judicial inquiry. Paul Lewis: In 1997 allegations of police racism persisted - all denied by thenCommissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Paul Condon. Paul Condon (Library): The facts, and the independent facts, don’t support that assertion. Our success rate in dealing with racially motivated crime is as good if not better than for dealing with general crime. Paul Lewis: However, the following year a judicial inquiry, led by Sir William
Macpherson, was launched. Its aim was to find out what went wrong in the police investigation, and in February 1999 the findings were published. Jack Straw (Library): The investigation was marred by a combination of professional incompetence, by institutional racism, and by a failure of leadership by senior officers. Paul Lewis: The far-reaching consequences of the Macpherson Report crucially did not touch on undercover policing tactics. Peter Francis claims that vital information was held back from the inquiry, despite his attempts at the time to make Special Branch come clean. Peter Francis: So when I actually informed them, it went first to the DI, Robert Lambert; it then went to Superintendent in the Special Branch, who’s responsible for the overall decisions; it actually then went up to Commander, Special Branch, who came out to see me. It can be encapsulated roughly along the following lines is, ‘if the public was to find out you were undercover there, there’d still be battling on the streets in a year to come’. So our whole idea is to prevent disorder, if we go in there and say we were undercover in there, it will reignite disorder that hadn’t taken place with Lawrence in quite a while. Paul Lewis: And what was the reaction when, the end of the inquiry, no mention of the SDS? Peter Francis: Absolute total relief, that no, there was no, nothing in the Macpherson Inquiry that tainted the Special Branch at all, we were totally clear of everything, despite obviously what I was aware of, that we’d been doing. Jack Straw: I think there is a very strong case for this particular undercover operation to be referred to the Independent Police Complaints Commission. Onscreen: Jack Straw MP Home Secretary 1997 - 2001 Jack Straw: That senior officers in Scotland Yard considered whether they should disclose the fact of this undercover operation to the Macpherson Inquiry, and they decided not to do so, that’s very serious indeed, and it places this undercover operation into a different and separate category from the others. Paul Lewis: In response to these allegations, the former Commissioner, Paul Condon, told Dispatches: Onscreen Statement from Lord Condon: “I never authorised, condoned or was aware of…Peter Francis or any other officer being allegedly tasked to seek intelligence to discredit…Duwayne Brooks…Nor was I aware or would I have authorised or condoned any withholding of information of any kind from the Judicial Inquiry which became known as the Macpherson Inquiry… Such action if it took place would have been clearly wrong and in direct contravention of my instructions to the Metropolitan Police to cooperate fully with the
Inquiry” Paul Lewis: After the break we examine how police used sex as a tactic, and we speak exclusively to a woman who had a relationship and a child with a man she didn’t know was a police officer. Jacqui: I just feel I’ve been abused. I feel I’ve been abused, I feel I’ve been multiple raped, and I just, I want it all to go away. Title screen: The Police’s Dirty Secret Channel 4 Dispatches [Commercial break] Onscreen: #PoliceSecrets Paul Lewis: Dispatches is investigating Britain’s police spies. Peter Francis is a former undercover agent turned whistleblower. He’s lifting the lid on a secret Special Branch unit that infiltrated activist groups. My colleague Rob Evans and I have authored a book on the spies. Onscreen: 5 July 2010 [note: actually 5 July 2010] Bob Lambert (Library): Since 9/11, it has become commonplace for Muslims to be violently attacked in Britain. Paul Lewis: Meet Dr Bob Lambert, an academic on Terrorism Studies, seen here speaking at a conference to promote anti-racism and multiculturalism. Bob is also a former undercover police agent, and was Peter’s boss. Paul Lewis: At this event, his secret past caught up with him, when he was confronted by activists he had duped. Onscreen: Helen Steel Helen Steel: People didn’t know who he really was. I thought it was an outrage he should be speaking there, when he’s done so much to try and undermine, you know, movements for social justice. We talked about it, and we decided we should expose him at this conference. Helen Steel (Library): Bob, we’d like to talk to you about your infiltration of London Greenpeace, and your <inaudible> of female campaigners… Helen Steel: He was stonewalling us, he was just saying nothing. He started trying to walk away swiftly, at one point he was even running.
Dave Morris (Library): What are you afraid of? Helen Steel: He didn’t like being challenged about his past. Paul Lewis: Thirty years earlier, Bob Lambert met a young activist called Jacqui. She has never before spoken publicly about him. Jacqui: First time I met Bob was outside Hackney Town Hall. He lived in Highgate, and he said he worked by doing bits and pieces - a bit of landscape gardening, a bit of tree surgery is how he described it. Said he was a committed anarchist. I could see he was a bit older, quite a bit older than me, but he was very charming, very charming. It was only after a couple of meetings, I suppose, I was, I was smitten. Paul Lewis: Jacqui knew Bob Lambert as ‘Bob Robinson’, his cover name. He’d been tasked with infiltrating a variety of activist groups, including the Animal Liberation Front. In the mid-1980s the organisation used letter and fire bombs to target the vivisection, meat and fur trades. But Jacqui says she was very much on the periphery. Jacqui: When I look back know, the whole idea, the purpose was to introduce him. So even if someone doubted him, they’d say, ‘but he’s going out with Jacqui, we know she’s alright’. Jacqui: That’s the van. Used to get about twenty activists in the back of that van. You can see the cushions in the back, that’s, that’s for people to sit on. Jacqui: What he started to do, well, more or less straightaway, really, is he would drop everyone else off first, so that eventually there was just me and him in the van. And once we’d started a relationship, I was promoted to the seat next to him. Paul Lewis: Just a few years after Jacqui was involved in a relationship with one undercover police officer, activist Helen Steel was being pursued by another. Helen Steel: I became involved in the animal rights movement, and around about 1987 I started going to London Greenpeace meetings. That was, London Greenpeace was campaigning on environmental and social justice issues, they believed in do-it-yourself politics, and I think it was not long after that that actually this guy John turned up. Helen Steel: His name was ‘John Barker’, he had a van and he used to offer to drive people home after the meetings, which at the time seemed like a very helpful thing to do, but actually is a very effective way of finding out where everybody lives. I was usually the last person to be dropped off. Helen Steel: And then over time we just became closer, and we, we started an intimate relationship. John talked to me about how he really loved me, and he wanted to spend the rest of his life with me, you know, we talked about, over time we talked about having children together, living together forever. I really felt like I wanted to spend the rest of my life with him, and I was pleased to have found somebody who wanted that kind of relationship and seemed to care about me.
Paul Lewis: Jacqui and Bob’s relationship also quickly became serious. Despite Bob having a wife and two children in his real life. Jacqui: I made no secret of the fact that I really wanted a baby. And his first reaction was ‘no’. We didn’t talk about having a baby or anything, probably for a couple more months, and then I kind of said to him that I didn’t know if me and him had a future if he never wanted children. And during one of these conversations he said ‘okay, then, we’ll give it a go, we’ll give it a try’. And I said, you know, this is proper commitment, and he said ’Yeah’. And I got pregnant the first month we properly tried. Paul Lewis: Bob Lambert went on to become Peter Francis’ manager when he was deployed in the 1990s. He advised his team on how to handle relationships when undercover. Peter Francis: There was a couple of provisos-cum-advice. One was ‘make sure you use a condom’, and was actually given as an example by Bob Lambert because he referred to another officer who allegedly was tricked into having a child when he was deployed. And the other one was ‘you shouldn’t fall in love’. Paul Lewis: In late 1985, Bob and Jacqui’s son was born. Jacqui: Bob was there, he was, you know, holding my hand, willing me to push, you know, just, just being what, what what would you expect? Really excited, and when I had my child, he asked if he could cut the cord. He held him, and then he kind of said to me ‘Well done!’ and kissed me, and told me how much he loved me. Paul Lewis: Just a few months after their son’s birth, the relationship began to sour. Jacqui: I was absolutely overwhelmed with motherhood, and I cut back on doing all the animal stuff, and I think, looking back now, that’s when I was no longer any use to him. More and more he was spending time away from me, and he would say he was working, or he was on direct action. I assumed that he was sleeping with other women. Paul Lewis: Bob had begun another liaison, and it wasn’t a casual fling. Onscreen: Belinda Harvey Belinda Harvey: Well, I was 24 when I first met Bob, and straight away I felt like it was something really special, and it was a very passionate and romantic relationship. It was very quickly escalated to where we were seeing each other all the time, really within a few weeks we were an established couple. He was introduced to my parents as my prospective life partner, and my parents accepted him as such, and, you know, he did nothing to make anyone think any differently. Paul Lewis: Belinda Harvey was an unlikely target for an SDS spy. She wasn’t a political activist, and was employed by the local electricity board.
Belinda Harvey: None of my friends were doing anything remotely of any interest to the police, and so it’s a complete mystery why he chose to have a relationship with me. I’m horrified to look back now and think that possibly he was just using me for sex, really, for his own, to meet his own needs. Paul Lewis: Bob knew the relationship wouldn’t last. In 1988 his tour of duty was coming to an end, and he needed to extricate himself from his undercover life. Peter Francis: If an SDS officer has set the trail correctly, by the time he comes to leave, be it four, five, x amount of years later, his targets-cum-friends should be aware that he has always wanted to wander, there’s a yearning to wander, but there’s some sort of mental instability, the upset thing, which explains why that person, that they care about, some might even love, unfortunately, that they actually can’t go with that person. Jacqui: He seemed like he was on the edge of a breakdown. Belinda Harvey: He said that police were catching up with him now, and he needed to go, he needed to, to disappear. Jacqui: He said, ‘I know some anarchists in Spain,’ he said, ‘who can help me out.’ Belinda Harvey: Then we came up with this plan where I was going to go out to Spain after he’d got settled out there. Jacqui: And he said, ‘I promise you that when things settle down, I’ll write to you, and when it’s safe to do so you can bring our son to Spain.’ Paul Lewis: Bob didn’t go to Spain. He was back at Special Branch, and living in his family home with his wife and kids. A few years later ‘John Barker’ disappeared from Helen’s life. Helen Steel: In total I spent 18 years searching for him. And in the end I only found out because the ex-partner of another police spy told me. Belinda Harvey: You hear about people having their phones hacked. Well that’s nothing compared to what happened to me, and what happened to us. Absolutely nothing. It’s like our bodies were hacked. It’s, it’s just unforgivable. Jacqui: For my body to be used to gain intelligence on a protest group, yeah, I feel like, I was raped, multiply times, wasn’t I? It’s like being raped by the state. And I just want it all to go away, and it doesn’t. It doesn’t go away. And the thing is, I’m probably going to have Bob Lambert in my life for a long time, ‘cause he’s the father of my son. Paul Lewis: Did you have sexual relations with activists you were spying on? Peter Francis: Casual relationships, yes. I did… Paul Lewis: Casual relationships of a sexual nature?
Peter Francis: Yes. Yeah. Paul Lewis: How did you justify that to yourself? Peter Francis: It was part of my persona, that I was a person who had casual sex, because it’s part of my character. Paul Lewis: How many times did you have casual sexual relationships? Peter Francis: Twice. Paul Lewis: Twice? Peter Francis: Yes. Paul Lewis: Given the women you were having sex with didn’t know you were an undercover police officer, do you think they gave you their fair-minded consent? Peter Francis: I would say that if you were having sex with a target, they probably wouldn’t have had it with you if they’d known you were a police officer. Paul Lewis: So those women who had sex with you when you were undercover, they didn’t give you informed consent, because they didn’t know you were a police officer? Peter Francis: I’d never considered that before. I’d never considered that at all before. So yeah, if in the event they didn’t like the police, they wouldn’t be consenting, yeah, they probably wouldn’t have given their consent. I think morally it’s not justifiable, but why I may feel slightly less morally bad about it, is the fact that I only had fleeting, casual relationships. I certainly never had a child with anybody, I never told anybody I loved them, I never told anybody I’d be there forever with them, I certainly didn’t live with people. They’re levels that, really can the state or anybody possibly justify doing that to these poor women? Helen Steel: I think the whole thing really destroys your sense of trust, because it makes you really question about whether… If someone can act that well, can you, can you believe what is going on in front of you now? It makes it very, very, very hard to form, kind of, close and loving relationships. Paul Lewis: Bob Lambert told Dispatches: Onscreen Statement from Bob Lambert: “The work of an undercover officer is complex, dangerous and sensitive and it would take some considerable time and co-operation of my former police employers, to provide the full background, context and detail necessary to address the matters which have been raised” Paul Lewis: Coming up, Helen and Belinda meet Belinda, and for the first time get some answers to their questions.
Title: The Police’s Dirty Secret Channel 4 Dispatches [Commercial break] Onscreen: #PoliceSecrets Paul Lewis: Dispatches is investigating allegations that police spied on campaign and protest groups, and used sex as a cover tactic. Helen Steel was duped into a two year relationship with an undercover officer, John Dines. After he suddenly disappeared, she tried to track him down. She visited the registry of births, marriages and deaths. Onscreen: Helen Steel Helen Steel: I suddenly had this instinct to go in there, and look through the death records. I started from the year of the birth of the ‘John Barker’ that I had known, and when I got to eight years old there was a record of a death of a child that seemed to match John’s details. When I read the certificate I realised that my partner had been using the identity of a dead child. Peter Francis: When I arrived on the Special Demonstration Squad, the DCI in charge at the time ran over how you create the undercover identity, and it was said totally matter-of-factly, as in, ‘this is what happens, we go along to the birth-death registers and we resurrect a dead child for the purposes of using it in the SDS’. Paul Lewis: Why did the SDS use these children’s identities, instead of kind of just creating fictional personas? Peter Francis: It was deemed that it gave you a level of cover that your targets, if they were sort of not satisfied with you, could actually go along and pull out your birth certificate to establish you’re a real person. Paul Lewis: Did you think about the child’s parents? Peter Francis: Hand on my heart, I didn’t really think a lot about the parents then. At the time the SDS did it, I was expected to do it. If I didn’t do it, there’s one route, and that’s straight back to Special Branch again. It was the only route I was optioned. Paul Lewis: The use of this tactic was widespread, but the police have so far not told any families affected. Dispatches has informed the families of two dead children whose identities were used by the SDS. Both were too upset to take part in this film. Paul Lewis: In 2008 the SDS closed its doors, but its work continues in the form of the National Public Order Intelligence Unit. Accusations of undercover officers engaging in sexual relationships have persisted.
Paul Lewis: Mark Jenner, who infiltrated left wing groups posing as ‘Mark Cassidy’, reportedly lived with an activist girlfriend for four years. Jim Boyling is said to have had two serious relationships in his time undercover. ‘Marco Jacobs’, who posed as an anarchist, also allegedly had two unsuspecting girlfriends before he disappeared in 2009. And Mark Kennedy - outed as a police spy in 2010, had several relationships with women all over Europe, the longest lasting six years. In total, ten undercover officers have been identified; of those, it is alleged that nine had sexual relationships with people they were spying on. Paul Lewis: So far, the Metropolitan Police has declined to explain why women were targeted in undercover operations. Now, Helen Steel and Belinda Harvey have the chance to question an ex-police spy. Paul Lewis: Hi… Paul Lewis: Whistleblower Peter Francis is the first ever undercover police officer to agree to give them some answers. Paul Lewis: So have a sit down. Belinda Harvey: I would just be interested to hear, you know, why you decided to speak up, after all of this time, against the undercover deployments. Peter Francis: What I’m trying to do is basically call for a judicial inquiry, a public inquiry, and I think my ability to explain very clearly from an insider’s perspective exactly what was going on, I think will add weight to getting a public inquiry. Helen Steel: Were you told not to live in houses, in other people’s houses, in activists’ houses? Peter Francis: I could live in an activist’s house if I wanted to, but… Helen Steel: But they didn’t, they didn’t say to you that that’s off-limits because, you know, if you were going to search somebody’s house, for example, you’d have to have to get a search warrant. They didn’t say, kind of, ‘Look, hang on, you can’t move into people’s homes, because that’s too intrusive.’ Peter Francis: Absolutely not. And it would have been, ‘I’ve got to move in with suchand-such because my role justifies it.’ Belinda Harvey: One thing I would like to know is if it was just by chance that he got together with me, or if I was actually specifically picked. Belinda Harvey: The clear answer to that is that unless you’re an activist ‘non’. If he had a single thought that you might be, he could justify being with you on a relationship basis. Belinda Harvey: Yeah. Helen and I and six other women are bringing a case, action against the police, for the psychological damage we feel has been done to all of us.
And I was just wondering if you would be prepared to give evidence in such a case. Peter Francis: Yes, totally. I would get up in a witness box and swear on oath, absolutely, everything I have said here. I think anybody and everybody would say ‘this is not justifiable.’ Paul Lewis: After leaving the Met in 2001, Peter Francis brought his own case against his former employers. He received damages after being diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress, and an identity disorder. Peter Francis: Who I am in my real life, I’ve honestly not got a clue. My character was called ‘Pete Black’, and I was an anti-fascist, and he is the person who is sitting in front of you here. I said goodbye a long, long time ago to who I really was. I’ve got divorced since then, I’ve lost pretty much everything. Helen Steel: It’s been pretty difficult, basically hearing just how little regard the SDS squad and Special Branch have for people’s lives. They’re ruining our lives, and basically for what? Just so they can prevent change from happening in this world. Paul Lewis: No less that sixteen reviews and inquiries have been launched into allegations of misconduct by undercover police. The largest is Operation Herne. Onscreen: Chief Constable Mick Creedon Operation Herne Mick Creedon: Clearly it has been close relationships, which in some occasions have ended up being sexual. It shouldn’t have happened, but it did happen, and part of my investigation in Herne is to look into that. Paul Lewis: Are you in a position to offer an apology to the women who were duped into having sexual relationships with police officers? Mick Creedon: I don’t think it’s as simple as a straightforward apology. Clearly I’ve made it very straightforward, we would not sanction, we would not authorise intimate sexual contact. Paul Lewis: We’ve spoken to a undercover police officer who says his senior officer, the person running the unit, authorised it, sanctioned it. In fact he told him if he was going to have sex, which he would be expected, to wear a condom. That doesn’t sound like it wasn’t authorised. Mick Creedon: I am speaking about the world in which I know, in which I operate. It would never be pre-authorised. If that is the case, I find it quite staggering. Paul Lewis: Peter Francis says he feels quite guilty now, that he was involved in this operation, that wasn’t monitoring subversives, it was smearing, and at the time the Metropolitan Police should have been try to catch Stephen Lawrence’s killers, they were monitoring members of the family and smearing the main witness.
Mick Creedon: I need to see that and understand that. But hypothetically, hypothetically, if that is the case, it’s clearly not something that would sit comfortably with any police officer. Paul Lewis: Doreen Lawrence, Stephen’s mother, is understandably angry over this. Can you give her an assurance that this will be investigated? Mick Creedon: One hundred percent. Absolutely one hundred percent. It is part of Operation Herne, to look at the deployments, to understand the deployments, and if indeed there are things in those deployments that need investigating beyond just the knowledge into potential culpability, potential wrongdoings, I will go there. Paul Lewis: Further to this interview, the Metropolitan Police said: Onscreen Statement from Metropolitan Police Service: “The MPS recognises the seriousness of the allegations of inappropriate behaviour and practices involving past undercover deployments. The claims in relation to Stephen Lawrence’s family will bring particular upset to them and we share their concerns…A thorough review and investigation into these matters…is being supervised by the Independent Police Complaints Commission, and it would be inappropriate to pre-judge its findings…The MPS must balance the genuine public interest…with its duty to protect officers and former officers…We are therefore not prepared to confirm or deny the identity of individuals…nor deployment…on specific operations…At some point it will fall upon this generation of police leaders to account for the activities of our predecessors, but for the moment we must focus on getting to the truth” Paul Lewis: Today the Prime Minister called for an immediate investigation. Peter Francis: Surely the public, they’ve not got a right to decide what form of policing they want? Paul Lewis: Police spies continue to operate in protest groups to this day. Peter Francis: I’m prepared to fully open up and say ‘this is what I done,’ and I think this should be regarded as a calling for other SDS officers, other people to come forward. Paul Lewis: Peter Francis, who has not been paid for his participation in this film, believes there are more secrets to come. Peter Francis: Hillsborough has just demonstrated that the police, no matter how much they collude together, the truth will catch up with you. Onscreen Credits: Reporter PAUL LEWIS Camera
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