Spycops: It only gets worse

In 2026 the Undercover Policing Inquiry was a one-stop horror shop of stories perfectly demonstrating how the police, by its very nature, tends to abuses of power. Some were well-known, such as
the targeting of the families of murdered teenagers and justice campaigns for people of colour. Others emerged during live evidence.

“Tranche 3” of the Inquiry covered the Special Demonstration Squad, the Metropolitan Police Special Branch unit which carried out most of the undercover work. The period was from 1992 to the end of 2007, when the SDS was shut down – for refusing to modernise. Live testimony came from the undercovers and managers, and their victims.

We continued to learn details of how many women were deceived into sexual relations. Among the most shocking accounts was that of ‘Maya’, who was targeted by the undercover Rob Hastings. The painful details of how the grief he gave her was drawn out wrecked everyone listening. Hastings sickeningly maintained he was the victim.

We also heard about HN14 Jim Boyling’s (pictured) central role in the June 18 Carnival Against Capitalism, and HN3 Jason Bishop’s around Mayday and the DSEi anti-arms trade protests.

There was smearing of activists to justify and extend deployments. Animal rights campaigner ‘L3’ went on a holiday to France with HN16 James Thomson, unaware that Thomson had cooked up
an imaginary plot where he was buying a gun to avenge a friend injured by a hunter.

Anti-fascist activist ‘Kurt’ was targeted for arrest simply because he had seen HN15 Mark Jenner with his real wife – while Jenner, as ‘Mark Cassidy’, was deceiving ‘Alison’ into a five-year relationship and living in her house. HN104 Carlo Soracchi tried to encourage Socialist Party members to firebomb a charity shop.

Campaigners of colour were particularly maligned. Atif Choudhary, a ISM activist, was clearly racially profiled to boost the SDS’s standing, being wrongfully but deliberately linked with the Mike’s Place suicide bombers. A drunken conversation in a pub, where a white Globalise Resistance activist suggested wearing a fake suicide vest at an Ariel Sharon demonstration, was converted into a planned terror attack by a separate person of colour, ‘MT’, and only prevented by the courageous HN116 ‘Simon Wellings’ who talked him down. This fantasy was repeated in documents as a great success of the SDS.

Corruption abounded, and fraudulent documents were submitted to claim expenses. Donna McLean was astounded to be presented with a rent book in her name for when Sorracchi was living with her, claiming for twice the actual rent and forging her signature. Sorracchi and multiple managers all pointed the finger at each other but nobody had a proper explanation.

Likewise there was no explanation for numerous foreign trips which seemed to be junkets for all concerned. A stand-out was the protection of undercover HN5 John Dines from discovery by Helen Steel, who he had deceived into a relationship, which cost upwards of £3 million.

The SDS acted like a criminal gang, with its own culture and code of silence. Yet despite the Metropolitan Police opening the Tranche with a litany of apologies, SDS officers giving evidence were for the most part unable to see what they’d done wrong. Their constant lies and pretending not to remember were painful to watch. They were unable to accept that their precious Special Branch was fundamentally and institutionally anti-democratic.

The main impression one is left with is how badly-managed this “jewel in the crown” of Special Branch was. It was a defence of incompetence.

Only two outside officers were harsh in their criticism of the SDS, including Jon Boutcher, Chief Constable of Northern Ireland and the only serving officer to give evidence. Boucher stated the SDS
had been out of control and the targeting of campaigners should never have happened.

The Inquiry still has to hear evidence from the other spycop unit, the National Public Order Intelligence Unit, which employed the likes of Mark Kennedy.

The Inquiry is in its 14th year, costing more than £130 million and another two years minimum are in the works. The delays are mostly, it has to be said, from excessive police secrecy. This summer, the Home Office announced a “consultation” on the future of the UCPI. With the current chair, Sir John Mitting, due to retire, nobody has been found to replace him.

This has raised fears of a cover-up, aimed at limiting the next stages or neutering the Inquiry in other ways. It is the MPS which has sat on much of the material which, had the victims received it sooner, would have shortened the Inquiry.

This article was first published in the Autumn/Winter issue of Freedom anarchist journal

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