Undercover policing scandal: why the Pitchford Inquiry must apply to Scotland

Sir Christopher Pitchford is mainly focusing on the tactics of two undercover units that were run by the Met: the Special Demonstration Squad (SDS); and the National Public Order Intelligence Unit (NPOIU).

The SDS planted officers in protest groups in London until 2008, while the NPOIU, set up in 1999, adopted similar tactics throughout the UK.

However, many legitimate groups and individuals, such as the family of murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence, were snooped on by police moles.

May ordered the Inquiry after the Lawrence scandal - and following revelations that officers formed sexual relationships with female spy victims.

Former SDS officer Bob Lambert, who later became a lecturer at St Andrews University, even fathered a child with a target before vanishing.

The Met has since issued “unreserved” apologies to seven women who were duped into sexual relationships.

However, despite the NPOIU having a UK-wide remit, the Pitchford Inquiry only applies to undercover activity in England and Wales.

Labour MSP Neil Findlay has drummed up broad support from Liberal Democrat, SNP and Green parliamentarians at Holyrood and Westminster for the Inquiry to apply to Scotland.

Picture: Neil Findlay MSP

Scottish Government Justice Secretary Michael Matheson has also been trying to persuade May about widening the Pitchford remit.

However, the Home Secretary is now facing the same call from her own side.

A spokesperson for the Scottish Tories said: “We support the extension of the Pitchford Inquiry to Scotland. If, for some reason, it cannot be extended, we would like the Scottish Government to set up its own.”

The Sunday Herald, which has consistently called for a Pitchford extension, has pulled together all the evidence of police spying activity in Scotland.

POLICE MOLE

The most notorious police spy was Mark Kennedy, who was embedded in protest groups between 2003 and 2010.

Known as Mark “Flash” Stone to the campaigners he spied on, he pretended to be an environmental activist but was really an undercover officer for the NPOIU.

Kennedy started sexual relationships with numerous females before being exposed by his erstwhile friends who uncovered his double life.

Although he was primarily based south of the border, one of Kennedy’s highest-profile missions was in Scotland.

He played the role of “transport co-ordinator” for anti-G8 protest groups at the global summit in Gleneagles in 2005 and fed back information to his handlers.

In an interview in 2011, he said: “My superior officer told me on more than one occasion, particularly during the G8 protests in Scotland in 2005, that information I was providing was going directly to Tony Blair’s desk.”

Picture: Mark Kennedy (Credit: Jamie Simmonds / Channel 4 Television)

A report by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary on the undercover units made clear Kennedy was active in Scotland: “Mark Kennedy was used in or visited 11 countries on more than 40 occasions, including 14 visits to Scotland.”

A ‘campaigner’ who went by the name of Lynn Watson has also been unmasked as an undercover officer.

At a recent conference on undercover policing, social justice activist Kate Wilson, who Kennedy had tricked into a relationship, said: “Between 2003 and 2009, I was involved in the Dissent network and, as well as Mark Kennedy, I also met a woman known as Lynn Watson, who I worked with in the first aid group.

“Those surveillance operations were not limited to England and Wales...I met Lynn in Scotland.”

German media outlet Spiegel Online has also reported that five undercover agents from Germany were deployed at the G8.

In 2009, it was revealed that a police officer from Strathclyde Police had offered money to a Scottish-based environmentalist for information on the Plane Stupid group.

SPY TARGETS

Sarah Hampton is a US citizen who met Kennedy in 2005 when they were travelling to Ireland with a ‘radical action’ group.

However, by the time the G8 had started later in the year, she and Kennedy were in a sexual relationship in Scotland.

She recalled: “By the time I was in Scotland with him we were having a full on romance. We both helped set up the demonstration eco-village during the Gleneagles anti-G8 demonstrations in Stirling. It was to show alternatives, how we could give a space to live for thousands of activists, feed them, supply toilets and showers sustainably.

“We were very busy but would spend the night in each other’s tents. Mark was very loving while we were in Scotland. It was during that time that I fell in love with him.”

Picutre: an anti-G8 protest in Edinburgh in 2005

Hampton has said her experience shows why Pitchford needs to be extended to Scotland:

“I am living proof that Mark operated in Scotland - why was he allowed to sleep with a US citizen during a spy operation in Scotland? People in the UK have a right to know why he was allowed to operate in Scotland and what information he gathered there.”

Jason Kirkpatrick, a campaigner and film-maker, was friends with Kennedy for five years but the police mole was secretly spying on him.

He worked on the press side at the Gleneagles G8, while Kennedy was in charge of transport:

“I was with Kennedy a lot more in Scotland than anywhere else, but it will be excluded from the Inquiry because Scotland is excluded from the Inquiry. I want answers,” he told the Sunday Herald last year.

“I suspect that Mark Kennedy and police agencies he was connected to may have organised to interfere with my sending of press releases.”

Kirkpatrick also said he had a brief romantic relationship during the G8 with a woman – “Khris” from London - who claimed she was part of the legal observer team.

However, she vanished without trace after seven days, a tactic deployed by many of the undercover officers.

“Shortly after completing my press work, Khris then disappeared, in a manner similar to the ‘extraction process’ used by known undercover officers when extracting themselves from their operations.”

Ellenor Hutson, a campaigner based in Glasgow, was also spied on by Kennedy.

She met him as part of the Dissent network he had infiltrated for the NPOIU.

She said recently: “I thought he was really nice, really competent, really pleasant to work with.

“And that’s been the way with all the undercover police. That’s the way they get their way in, by being pleasant."

She continued: “It was shocking when I realised he was undercover police. I was weirded out by it but my experience is absolutely nothing compared with the women who’ve been in relationships with these people. It’s one of the most serious things, really horrific.”

SCOTTISH SUPERVISORS

No allegation has been made that police officers from legacy forces in Scotland worked undercover for the NPOIU.

However, there is mounting evidence that senior personnel were seconded to the Unit from Scotland to work in a management capacity.

Eleanor Mitchell was a decorated officer who retired earlier this year from Police Scotland after making it to the rank of Chief Superintendent.

At the time of her departure, she was the head of the force's Professional Standards Department, which upholds ethics in the force.

Sources have told this newspaper Mitchell worked on undercover policing at the Met in the early 2000s.

An official biography states that, until 2006, she advised on “environmental extremist and animal rights protest, acting as strategic, tactical and operational lead”.

The remit of the NPOIU was to keep tabs on environmental and animal rights protest groups.

Picture: Mitchell

Other literature notes that she “worked in New Scotland Yard in London”, while a third biography confirmed she was “seconded down to the Met Police in London where she worked for six years”.

Police Scotland said of Mitchell’s NPOIU link: “She, and we, have nothing further to add.”

Retired Scottish detective Paul Hogan was more open about his relationship with the NPOIU – the details were plastered over his Linkedin biography.

Hogan was an officer at the now-defunct Tayside Police force before getting a secondment to the NPOIU between 2003 and 2007.

His biography stated: “Seconded to a National Unit responsible for gathering, assessing and disseminating intelligence relating to Domestic Extremism, including Animal Rights, Left & Right Wing Extremists and Environmental Extremism."

The same document noted that, between September 2003 and March 2005, he handled undercover officers:

“Coordinated the activities of 5 Field Officers who had liaison responsibilities across all Police Forces within the UK."

Hogan also played a key role on the undercover side at the Gleneagles G8: “Leading a team of 19 with a 1/4 million budget I controlled all the department's covert intelligence assets and ensured legislative compliance.

“Contributed to covert policing activity at the G8 Summit providing logistical support to all officers and particularly those unfamiliar with the location.

POLICE SCOTLAND

In common with the Metropolitan police, the single force has adopted a stance of “neither confirm nor deny” when asked questions by this newspaper about officers’ links to the NPOIU.