Undercover cop wants to right his wrongs and meet everyone he spied on
A former undercover cop who spied on more than 300 trade unionists, environmentalists and justice campaigners has promised to meet everyone of them to explain why he snooped on them.
Peter Francis worked for the Met’s Special Demonstrations Division for five years but has now turned whistle-blower and is determined to right ‘his wrongs’.
Francis made an emotional and rare public appearance last night in front of blacklisted construction workers at a meeting in the House of Commons.

He said: ‘I did wrong. We all did wrong. I personally will meet any activist I spied on. Whether I blacklisted someone or spied on them, I will meet them.
‘And I will explain to them why I felt it was justified at that time to spy on them.’
He added: ‘Many years later I have problems justifying what I did. But I will explain historically where I was at that time and why I thought i was right to do it.
‘I used the identity of a dead child. I must have spied on more than 300 people. And I know lives were damaged.’
Francis is going to be a major witness at the Undercover Policing Public Inquiry which has now been going on for four years but has yet to hear any evidence from witnesses.
However, the inquiry has revealed the extent of the spying with thousands of people being targeted including the family of murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence.

The former policeman was accompanied to the meeting by Labour Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell who has held him on his journey from undercover spy to whistleblower.
Mr McDonnell said: ‘Whatever you think of what Peter did, what he has done here tonight is very brave and courageous.’
Hayes MP McDonnell also revealed he was spied on when he tried to get justice for a constituent called Ricky Reels who was killed 20 years ago.
He said: ‘We were told the police did not have the resources to find out what happened to Ricky. But the police did have the resources, they chose to use them to instead of finding what happened to Ricky they decided to spy on his family who were looking for justice.
‘Our campaign and I had been the victims of what the police officers described as “collateral intrusion”.

‘I had never heard this expression before but it was explained that the family’s campaign for justice had come under surveillance and that undercover police officers had been attending our meetings.’
He added: ‘Both the undercover spying on trade unionists and justice campaigners and the Blacklisting of construction workers are national scandals.’
Also at the meeting were two women who were tricked by undercover police into having long term relationships.
One of them, who legally can only be referred to as Alison, said: ‘I was a teacher in the 1990s, and this man spied on me, and my mother, for years.

‘I still find it difficult to come to terms with the fact that I was in relationship with a policeman and he was spying on me and those I knew.’
She added: ‘Two Welsh women who also had relationships with undercover policemen have described it as state sponsored rape. I think I agree with that.’
Yesterday the Blacklist Support Group published the internal police Creedon Report which revealed undercover police gave information about construction workers to the company which ran a blacklist for major companies.
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A spycop sexually abused a woman for two years. But new documents reveal his cover officer is claiming ignorance.
On 3 October, undercover policing was back in the courts. Kate Wilson, who was deceived into a sexual relationship with Mark Kennedy, was at the Investigatory Powers Tribunal for a hearing over her case that Kennedy abused her human rights.
Part of the evidence Wilson is demanding is disclosure of how far up the chain of command knowledge of her relationship with Kennedy went. During the hearing, one of the tribunal panel members stated it was “inconceivable” that Kennedy’s supervisors didn’t know about his relationship.
But this statement comes just a day after a document published on the Undercover Policing Inquiry’s website claimed that at a cover officer had no knowledge of the sexual relationships one of her officers engaged in.
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Cover officers
According to the College of Policing, a cover officer has:
day-to-day responsibility for dealing with the UCO [undercover police officer] and their security and welfare.
One such cover officer is N30, whose risk assessment was published by the UCPI on 2 October. N30 was responsible for nine UCOs between 2004 and 2008. One of these officers was N104, Carlo Neri. Neri had a two-year relationship with a woman known as Andrea and even proposed to her.
But in her risk assessment [p4]:
N30 stated that no one to her knowledge was involved in a sexual relationship during her tenure.
Andrea said that Neri was “embedded in her family” and that:
He kind of made an effort to be in contact with them a lot … and they reciprocated because they liked him.
And yet the woman who had day-to-day responsibility for his actions claims to have no knowledge of the relationship.
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“Inconceivable”
Speaking to The Canary, Andrea agreed with the assessment of the tribunal that it was “inconceivable” that Neri’s cover officers and managers did not know about the relationship. She described what happened as “systematic, state-sponsored abuse”.
She also said that the disclosure created even more questions, especially regarding a woman who used to call regularly to speak to Neri:
In light of the revelation that one of Carlo’s key cover officers was a woman, I now question who the woman on the phone was… it clearly wasn’t his sister.
Disclosure
The police admit they hold 10,000 documents on Wilson. The police are desperately trying to keep those documents from her. Arguments made at the hearing included money:
That they still haven’t found all the documents:
And finally, that they need more time:
Wilson, Andrea and everyone spied on needs full disclosure of police documents. And this has to include information about cover officers, line managers and however high up the policing hierarchy this abuse goes. It is clear that the victims of undercover policing cannot trust the selective information given to them by the police.
Nothing justifies what the police have done to political campaigners and they need to come clean. These officers, their managers and whoever else knew about their actions need to be held to account. Enough is enough.
The Canary contacted the Metropolitan Police for comment but had received no response by the time of publication.
The author is a core participant in the Undercover Policing Inquiry
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Featured image via author’s own