Undercover officer played role in Stephen Lawrence inquiry clashes | UK News

An undercover police officer took part in clashes during the Stephen Lawrence inquiry as part of his cover so he could better spy on anti-racism groups, one of the UK’s longest-running public inquiries has been told.

The decade-old Undercover Policing Inquiry, which began its latest phase of hearings on Monday, heard that there may be evidence of overt racism in how a now-disbanded team targeted black justice campaigners in the 1990s.

Officers gathered information relating to Baroness Lawrence and Dr Neville Lawrence as they fought for justice over their son’s 1993 racist murder, even though they had nothing to do with groups which the police force believed could be a danger to public order.

The inquiry – which has cost £114m so far – began in 2015 after allegations emerged of abuses by undercover officers, including deceiving women into sexual relationships.

In an opening statement on Monday, the inquiry’s lead lawyer David Barr KC said it would hear “deeply moving” evidence from justice campaigners including the Lawrence family and Sukdev Reel, whose son Ricky died in 1997 in what many suspect was a racist murder.

Mr Barr said that the inquiry would look at why Scotland Yard had deployed undercover officers to gather information relating to campaigns such as these and to what extent those operations may have been motivated by racism.

One of those officers was a man known only as HN81 or “David Hagan” due to an anonymity order.

By 1997 he had been deployed to gather intelligence on the anti-racism movement in London at a time when the force was preparing to face a public inquiry over how it had botched the investigation into Stephen Lawrence’s murder.

Stephen, 18, was stabbed by a gang as he waited at a bus stop in Eltham, south-east London.

While the thrust of the evidence so far is that HN81 did not get close enough to the family to have become a key figure in their campaign, he has admitted being part of infamous clashes on the day that the five murder suspects gave evidence to the Lawrence inquiry in 1998.

“He [HN81] accepts being involved in the public disorder,” Mr Barr said.

“HN81 describes that day as the most serious incident of public disorder he witnessed and participated in. He describes shouting, aggressive posturing and joining in with the pushing and shoving once that had begun.”

The police ultimately used CS gas to try to control the crowd – leading to Baroness Lawrence appealing for calm.

“It is undeniable that the Stephen Lawrence Campaign was conducted throughout in a manner that defied public disorder, advocating for order and calm, even where some would have had it otherwise,” said Mr Barr.

“Dr Neville Lawrence is appalled that a police officer was involved in such action. He has stated to the inquiry that it is (I quote) ‘particularly troubling that an officer who sought to justify surveillance on the grounds of public disorder actively contributed to it’.”

Another key witness for the latest tranche of evidence is Peter Francis, a former officer of the now disbanded Special Demonstration Squad at the heart of the allegations of wrongdoing.

His revelations were one of the factors that triggered the public inquiry.

When he gives evidence in December, Mr Francis is expected to say that in 1993 – six months after Stephen’s murder – he was receiving racially-motivated orders from a manager known only as “HN86” to gather information relating to that justice campaign and other causes.

“Mr Francis portrays HN86 as a thoroughly and overtly racist man who, amongst other things, instructed him to seek out intelligence for the purpose of undermining black justice campaigns,” said Mr Barr.

“In particular, information about the Lawrence family which could be used to discredit them and to destroy the Stephen Lawrence Campaign.

“Mr Francis asserts that he was also expected to report information that might discredit Duwayne Brooks [Stephen Lawrence’s friend who had been with him on the night of the fatal attack].

“HN86 denies these allegations. We will be looking at them very closely indeed.”

In a brief opening address, Peter Skelton KC, representing the Metropolitan Police, said the force apologised to the family of Stephen Lawrence, his friend Duwayne Brooks, Sukhdev Reel, and other justice campaigners.

“There was a collective failure to exercise ethical judgment about the purpose of undercover policing and the propriety of reporting on family justice campaigns,” he said.

“This is reflective of an ‘us against them’ culture that prevailed within the MPS at that time, which didn’t properly distinguish between legitimate intelligence targets, such as groups committed to inciting serious public disorder, and illegitimate targets such as grieving black and Asian families who were complaining about injustice and the actions of the police.”