Discovering that they were subject to spying by #spycops has had profound and long lasting impact on many Core Participants and others. They have some limited information about what took place, but many, many unanswered questions remain.
This Inquiry should make clear recommendations to ensure that undercover policing of this kind does not happen again.
Disproportionate, politicised and unregulated undercover surveillance is never acceptable. The horrendous abuses of the rights of these Core Participants –
the women who were abused, the bereaved families spied upon, the people who were wrongly convicted of offences, the racist targeting of campaigners - demand recommendations and changes to our existing system.
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Geoff Sheppard and Andrew Clarke, were convicted of offences including arson committed in July 1987. They were alleged to have been involved in the making and then planting of incendiary devices intended to set off sprinkler systems in Debenhams stores.
At their trial it was alleged that Mr Clarke and Mr Sheppard was connected to the devices which were planted by a third person. What was not revealed was that the third man who participated in this activity with them, planting devices, was, in fact, #spycops officer: Bob Lambert.
Both Mr Clarke and Mr Sheppard served long prison sentences for their part in that activity. Their lives were dramatically changed as a result. In contrast Bob Lambert, the police officer who encouraged them and planted one of the incendiary devices, did not.
Dr Graham Smith and Mark Metcalf: Colin Roach Centre and Hackney Community Defence Association: The Trevor Monerville and ‘Justice for Tunay’ campaigns formed the HCDA, with the aim of providing the victims of police abuses of power with a campaigning voice.
In 1993 Dr Graham Smith & Mark Metcalf were involved in the establishment of the Colin Roach Centre (“CRC”), named after Colin Roach who was shot dead 10 years previously in Stoke Newington police station. The CRC was broken into and its computers were destroyed. #spycops
In 1995 PC Mark Jenner, working undercover as ‘Mark Cassidy’, infiltrated the CRC. He became active in the centre’s political life, including writing its internal bulletin. He attended member’s meetings & was privy to confidential information concerning cases against the police.
Sukhdev and Tish Reel and the campaign relating to the death Ricky Reel in 1997. a 20-year-old student from London, went for a night out with friends. Attacked by two white youths shouting racist abuse and Ricky Reel went missing, his body was found a week later in the Thames.
Ricky Reel’s family have been campaigning for justice and information ever since his racist murder. No one has been arrested for his death. The police failed properly to investigate his death which was treated as an accident.
In 2014 the family were informed by the police that they and the justice campaign surrounding them had been subject to surveillance and intelligence-gathering by #spycops
Myrna Simpson and the campaign relating to the death of her daughter, Joy Gardner in 1993. who was then spied on by #spycops
Their home was raided by 3 officers of Metropolitan Police’s Aliens Deportation Group’ (ADG).Joy Gardner was forced face down on the floor, her hands bound to her side with a leather belt. Her legs were strapped together & yards of surgical tape wound around her head
Her son saw some of the restraint and heard all of it. Lack of oxygen to her brain caused her death. In 1995 the 3 officers stood trial for manslaughter. They were acquitted. The ‘Justice for Joy’ campaign interlinked with a number of other justice campaigns.
Now is the Lee Lawrence and the campaign relating to the shooting of his mother, Cherry Groce in 1985. #spycops
In the early hours of 28th September 1985 Lee Lawrence, then 11, was asleep with his parents at their home in Brixton. They were woken by a bang and his mother, Cherry Groce, went to see what it was. still in the bedroom, she was shot by Inspector Douglas Lovelock.
The injury was to cause her paralysis below her waist and she was wheelchair bound for the remainder of her life. She died in 2011 as a result of the injuries she had suffered in 1985.