Thread by @helensteel12

On this day 30 years ago, McDonald's served a libel writ on me as I stepped from the van of my then partner, who unbeknown to me was an undercover policeman, John Dines, who was spying on me & other campaigners in London Greenpeace #spycops #McLibel #OTD
smh.com.au/lifestyle/hele…

The writ alleged McDonald's had been libelled in a leaflet produced by London Greenpeace, which was co-written by another undercover policeman, Bob Lambert. The resulting court case lasted 3 years, but at no time was the role of the
#spycops revealed

theguardian.com/uk/2013/jun/21…

After the case ended we sued the police as it had emerged the police had provided confidential information about us to McDonald's to enable them to sue us. The police apologised and paid damages, but still didn't reveal the role of #spycops in the case
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/820786…

After discovering that my former partner had been an undercover policeman, I joined with 7 other women to bring a case against the police to challenge this #InstitutionalSexism
We received an unprecedented apology from the police, but no disclosure at all

It is now 5 years since the Public Inquiry into Undercover Policing was set up, and in those 5 years the police have still not come clean about their gross & abusive interference in my life and their collusion with McDonald's, instead they demand the #spycops privacy is paramount

We now know over 1000 groups were spied on by secret political policing units in the UK, but so far the Inquiry has refused to name them. It's time the UCPI stopped prioritising police wishes over the right of the public & those spied on to know the truth
theguardian.com/uk-news/ng-int…

There's more on the timeline of #spycops here. Inquiry is now due to start in Nov, but there are serious concerns about whether it will be public. So far the Inquiry has refused to agree to live streaming evidence but given COVID restrictions this is vital spycops.co.uk/timeline/