Britain’s secret police force was hearing evidence from a former police officer on Thursday when the footage suddenly cut as the officer began talking about the role of MI5, the government’s domestic intelligence service, in smearing political activists.
The inquiry into the conduct and activities of undercover police officers in Britain between 1968 and 2008, colloquially known as the “spy cop” inquiry because it was set up more than a decade ago in response to allegations that officers had become romantically involved with female left-wing activists, is due to hear evidence from the inquiry’s first former undercover officer on Thursday.
Trevor Morris is a former undercover police officer who reclaimed the identity of a dead child to operate as disc jockey and German translator Anthony “Bobby” Lewis when infiltrating left-wing and activist groups in the early 1990s. As documents released by the commission reveal, Morris has strongly disagreed with criticism of the Special Demonstration Service (SDS) undercover unit, arguing that by infiltrating extremist groups he saved countless lives and prevented much unrest.
SDS infiltrated dozens of groups during its decades of existence before its role was taken over by the National Domestic Extremism Unit after 2008, but one of its most high-profile cases was that of the Campaign for Stephen Lawrence, a black teenager killed in a racist attack in 1993. It has been argued for years Undercover police officers infiltrated the Lawrence family’s election campaign, trying to find “dirt” to “smear” them, the suit said.
Questions inevitably turned to this during Thursday’s evidentiary hearing, where former undercover police officer Morris flatly denied that police had sought to smear activists, but clearly implied that other government agencies had. “Nonsense,” he said. “That’s not our job. We’re in the business of gathering intelligence, we’re not in the business of smearing individuals. That’s the job of the sheriff’s department. Let them do that. We’re in the business of gathering intelligence and that’s what we were doing.”
Apparently realising what he’d said, the officer quickly added, “Sorry, I shouldn’t have said that…let’s delete that last part, I never said that.”
Attorney David Barr, the lead counsel for the investigation, began asking follow-up questions before cutting to the live feed, which was broadcast on a 10-minute delay to allow for such moments. “Just to be clear, are you in a position to say whether the sheriff’s department was seeking sm or not?” he asked.
The footage resumed about 45 minutes later, with the inquiry’s chairman, former High Court judge Sir John Edward Mitting, warning reporters in the room not to report on anything that had been said while the cameras were off.
Sir John spoke in a solemn tone: “Before I resume, I want to say to everyone in the back that these orders have a purpose. I know that you have complied with the orders so far. These are serious orders and any violation can have serious consequences. I ask and request that you please comply with the orders. A transcript will be released in due course which will contain some of what was said between 11:16 and 11:22, but it will only be a small excerpt.”
Commenting on these orders, the commission’s official website said: “They restrict the disclosure or publication of certain information. They are issued by the Chairman and are legally enforceable.”
A short break was scheduled during the morning session, but the cameras were turned off for significantly longer than the advertised 15 minutes, and the footage cut off midway through lawyers speaking.
The “Security Service” referred to by the witness and his lawyer is the official name of MI5, the British government’s domestic intelligence agency, which was known as Fifth Section of Military Intelligence during World War I. According to MI5’s own calculations, their remit was as follows:[protect] “To protect the UK from threats to national security… we obtain, analyse and assess intelligence, conduct investigations and work with partners to thwart these threats.”
